A new Tale
by Thedyingjokepastaway
Summary: Something went wrong. Frisk did her first Reset ever, but it wasn't just the world that was Reset. The whole timeline was recreated. What destiny awaits this new world? Will it survive the disasters to come or will it fall to the growing darkness?
1. Prologue - Rewrite

Everybody knows it. Everyone is aware of her tale. Frisk's tale. Eventually after finishing the first pacifist-neutral run, she immediately Reset to try something new, but nobody expected that this Reset was no ordinary Reset. The power of this Reset was beyond anything even Flowey himself experienced. He learned long ago that with each Reset, the world changed a bit. However, Frisk's Determination was way past Flowey's. As everything fade to black, the lonely Flower realized what a Reset of this power would do.

\- N-no. That idiot should not have the power to do… THIS!... Unless her Determination grew during her journey and that it, the monster sigh, well, even if I won't remember trough this, see you soon in a better world…

CHARA…

Everything faded for good. Something went wrong. Frisk's Determination indeed grew as she traveled trough the Underground and if she did not achieved the good ending and thus, were unaware of the nature of a True Reset, she did something even worst. What Flowey really tried to do, after discovering in is first runs the true lab and some of Gaster's notes about the multiple kind of Reset possible. A normal one only affect the world and left the timeline mostly untouched while a True Reset completely wiped out the memories of every being with it except for the one to do it while the timeline got back to the state it has the first time they got to possess this power. One thing was what Flowey tried in vain to accomplish. A Rewrite. As the name suggest, this power completely change a timeline and warp everything. In the original timeline, Gaster failed in his experiment to recreate that kind of power and he got erased from reality. While Flowey never gained enough power to do it, he wanted to get a new chance for him and Chara in a new timeline. Now, no one knows what will happen once the timeline stabilized itself… Only one thing is certain… no matter what will happen there and no matter what the story will be… as the time is running and that the following events might seal everyone's destiny...

A new Tale will take place… and the world hangs in the balance.

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Ok eventually the next part will be better and longer. Also expect some description about Frisk's life and the twisted story of this new timeline. Thanks for reading.


	2. Chapter 1 - The wizards

Ok so backstory on Frisk before we start. Frisk's a girl in this story, her father, Clovis, was a metamorphe but a morpher can only turn into a creature he's seen before or know enough about so being a morpher require you to travel to meet new creatures and thus being able to, well, morph duh. Her mom, Amelia, was a powerful wizard, which mastered all type of magic but could only learn white, blue and orange magic to her daughter before a hunter's bear trap accidentally killed her. Way to go for a wizard… Anyway Frisk was trying to learn healing magic at the time Amelia died. She can create green bullets but they often fizzle out (expect a lot of fail on healing magic from Frisk XD). She can take the form of pretty much every animal of the forest but prefer to hunt as a wolf or to observe the forest from above as a bird. One time she manage to take a dragon form… it ended poorly (lesson 1 : never breathe fire near a forest. Use your imagination there lol.). At the time this story takes place she is 17 years old but she's a good kid. So I think you know enough for now. Time to get started

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"Haaa… they are still after me?! I thought I'd lose them in this cave, plus nobody ever go near Mt. Ebott because of the legends… maybe I could just immobilize them with blue magic? … No, I'm too tired, even to transform back. Uh? What's... that... Oh weeeeelllll if I ain't lucky today. They got dad… dang it"

A few centuries ago when monster kind was still on the surface, the magic emanating from them unlocked some kind of power in the soul of some humans, mostly the humans possessing traits. Some humans without trait still got some powers. At first, humans were happy to be able to wield magic. Hand in hand, the two race build great cities and uncovered many secrets of the world. It was prefect until one day… everything went chaotic. To save the soul of a deceased human they loved, a monster absorbed it and even if we now know in this kind of event the control is splitted, the humans ignored this fact. Fearful of what could happen if more souls were taken, they attacked. The rest, we all know it.

One thing differ from there. After the barrier's creation, humanity lost thrust in magic. For them, it was the cause of all of their problems and most magicians started to be treated in a cruel way. They had magic so the others considered they were no better then the monsters they just sealed under the earth and one day… they came.

Most sorcerers woke up one day to be received by an angry mass of people. Acquaintance, friends, the ones they cared and loved and even their own family turned against them. As they were all lapidated, hanged or burnt, they knew… they knew their souls would live one, but every single souls was shattered. No mercy. No kindness. The world turned dark and deprived from love and happiness to be replaced by hatred and fear. The few wizards left learnt with time to hide from hunters and to disappear when needed. Frisk was born a few years before all this, her mom died only two month before the chase begun, and their lives went from heaven to absolute hell. With their power, it was easy to hide with her father. A few hours ago, however, the most stupid thing busted their covers to a group of hunters passing by.

As she was reading one of the few books she kept after they had to leave their home, Frisk had a craving for some meat. Taking her wolf form, she went chasing. Barely an hour later she came back with a deer that was near their camp. "Dad will be proud of me. My first prey I managed to get alone!" She was so deep in thought she never saw the hunters stop dead in their track when what they thought was a normal wolf stopped aside a well-hidden tent and turned into a human. Morphing through forms in a question of hours is tiring for young metamorphs.

"HEY. YOU THERE! DON'T MOVE. WITCH!"

She mentally told herself how much she was stupid before turning around. Secretly she shot one tiny bullet at her dad who was still asleep. As soon as they heard him wake up one them just shot in the air, startled, and got annoyed glanced from the others.

After a run trough the forest in her wolf form, Frisk and Clovis, who chose a bird, bolted toward Mt. Ebott. The place had a reputation so bad it might dissuade the three men to continue further in their chase. Frisk thought she heard something like a "bang" but pushed forward and landed in a cave full of bushes with a big hole in the center. The sides of the holes where smooth, which made it look, like a well. Upon closer inspecting, it was a bit conical. Smooth and conical walls. "To keep someone to get out… or… something… are the monsters even alive these days? Most surely are dead by now."

And now she's there, watching hopelessly as one of the men came with Clovis, dragging him by his "feet". "He's just unconscious, thank god." Thought Frisk as she heard her dad breath.

\- Hey, Curt, one of them asked, what will you do to that chicken?

\- I'm not sure, but it's not a chicken, this one had a soft voice and was not as tall has his two companions.

\- I vote for letting him watch his girl suffer, then we switch roles until one die.

"SHUT THE HELL UP, BRENT" the shouts in unison.

\- Even these devils does not deserve such torture, said the first one, who looked like the stereotypical lumberjack.

\- Gregory's right, we could just sell them to the locals. They seemed pretty itchy to get their hands on these two.

\- Well, Brent seemed to think about it, we could do this but first we get the money then we give them the wizards. I don't thrust villagers, except in my home town. We all know each other there.

That was enough. Frisk was not afraid anymore. In fact, she was mad as hell and ready to kick their butt into outer space if needed. All she wanted was to get out of this predicament with her dad. As she came out of the bush, growling loudly, she also summoned a few dozens of white bullets. She only said one clear sentence with rage barely contained in her voice.

\- Let go of him and go away, she sent the bullets flying around the hunters so they could not do anything, or I'll tear you all to shreds.

\- G-guys maybe we m-messed u-up, Curt said. All bravery gone, like the others.

\- Brent? Curt? What do you think of putting this guy down, take a run for it, and just never try that again? Cause if I survive today I'm pretty sure I'll end up with a PTSD from wizards.

Putting Clovis down, Curt got closer to the others. "Please don't kill us please don't us please don't kill us" he thought. As soon as he was far enough from the bird, the wolf stop growling, but with a weird kind of canine smile on her face.

\- Alright, Frisk said, you can run now.

She just send the bullets at them. Needless to say, they looked like they would jump off their skin any moment as they nearly tripped and rolled down the mountain. After watching them and being sure they wouldn't come back, Frisk got to her father and started watching him. She was so tired… but she had to stay awake. What if more hunters came? "I need to stay focused… I need to be ready if they come back… I *yawn* ugh I won't be able to save us again even if it's just these idiots." She dragged the body of the bird along her in a big bush where she quickly fell asleep...

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Hey thanks for reading my story. 00:37 in the morning. Dear lord what am I doing with my life? I know it's not very related to Undertale yet except the bit of story and the prologue but don't worry that will come soon enough. Uh just to say tough that Flowey will act a bit different then he normally does. Soulless. It's my only clue. Bye! :D


	3. Chapter 2 - The fallen child

Ok so mostly a filler here sorry. Ho did I forgot to mention Clovis has the Integrity trait and Meliane had the Determination one? Oops sorry. (no I'm not XD) also from now on any scene in a dream there will be centered text. Don't want to make it too complicated. OK LET'S GO!

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"Uh? Where… where am I? DAD!? WHERE IS HE AND WHAT'S THIS PLACE?!"

A dark, infinite space, floating between black beneath that degraded to a pale grey as a "sky" above. No sign of her dad, but there was a figure in the distance. Frisk jumped on her feet and ran toward the stranger that was facing back, draped in some sort of black robe and having a white skin. "Hey mister, mister?" He wasn't turning around. Suddenly (just assume it's in Windings for the bold dialogue lines please)

" **So... you are the Anomaly... right? So please...** "

He turned around to reveal the black robe was his body, seemingly melt from… something. He gave off a strong sensation of warmth. The most striking thing was his face. No eyes except for pale, flickering lights in empty socket looking trough her. Crack where starting from them and just then Frisk realized. He was a skeleton monster. As he started to talk again, everything started to fade and his speech became slower.

" **I beg you... s... save them... on... only you can... please** "

All of a sudden, before everything went dark, his word became understandable.

"Please… save them… I'm running out of time"

The voice seemed to duplicate as it echoed all around her, one last time.

"Frisk…"

\- Frisk wake up. Please you're worrying me.

Clovis was gently shaking her. As she stood up she saw she turned back into her human form while asleep. Just like she starting moving her eyes to look at him, she saw blood flicking on the ground from a wound at her father's shoulder. "So that gun shot I heard…" she thought.

\- D-dad, you're hurt…

\- Ho that… yes, he stared at it, feeling a bit uneasy about it, that short guy, heh… just have to say he's got a good aim. Too bad he chose this lifestyle.

\- Please let's talk later. After I've healed you at least.

As she took his shoulder in her hand to stabilize it, a soft green aura started shining at her hands. The wound closed quickly, leaving no mark except for a little spot where the shot had gone trough. Shaking a bit as she tried to remember the weird dream she just had, her dad noticed her expression

\- Hey… mind to, uh well, speak about that dream you had? You were trembling like a leaf and I don't want to invade your personal space. I just want to know what happened in this dream… if that's okay with you, that is.

\- Uh… well I don't recall much except there was some-no, not someone, a monster.

\- What? Do you think..?

\- No, only granny had the power to encounter others in dream. You should know by now how that work. Beside, I don't know a single monster since it's been eons since they were sealed underground. Now about that dream, it was skeleton monster. He was speaking in some weird language made of symbols and hands. Lastly… he… he… HAAA I'm sorry it's just too blurry, Frisk was sobbing a bit now, I know he said something really important that I understood but I can't remember it… I'm so useless. A single tear made it past her clenched eyes.

\- Now now, please don't cry you did a good job and also, if you really were useless I doubt we'd be alive by now, hehe… too bad our books treating on monsters burned down with the house… Clovis seemed pretty deep in thought for a moment. Hmmm… I think… no, he muttered to himself, unless that, yes it must be it, he raised his voice. Listen Frisk, I think what you talked about was Windings, but I never tried anything with them, way too freakin much symbols.

\- Dad, you think a monster near could have tried to contact me? But I was su-*CRACK*.

A branch cracked under somebody's foot. "The hunters, Clovis thought, they probably are back". Frisk looked in the hole, maybe they would have to jump in.

\- D-dad? How many here there?

\- I don't know. I counted near a dozen of them. They are speaking loud enough for me to distinguish their voices, but I can't hear what they're talkin about.

At this moment a bullet was shot toward the ceiling, followed by a "Don't move!" as at least twenty hunters rose from the bushes, pointing them.

\- Almost a "dozen", heh?

\- Frisk I swear it's not the right moment. A blue hue started twirling between Clovis's fingers. We might die if we don't take this seriously and I have plans that kind of need me alive to complete them, you know, like anyone alive has plans for their lives?

However, seeing him activate his trait, one hunter shot toward Frisk, however the bullet crashed to the floor having merely traveled one or two foot in the air. Frisk, who was better in levitation, got herself ready.

\- Well. It's now or never while they are still surprised, one. Two. Three. JUMP!

Let's say they nearly got scalped but that the plan worked, as they lowered their speed near the ground. They landed safely on a bed of golden flowers. "Urgh, buttercups" Frisk thought. She always hated these, the seed were sticking too much and like she needed it she was allergic to the pollen of most flowers. However this was the only kind to give her a violent reaction. Normally her eyes just watered but with these she could start to cough violently if she stay to much near the buttercups.

\- ACHOO! Ugh g'eat I'm a'ready good for fleaning my shirt. "At least I brought tissues"

\- As much as I was scared moments ago I can't help but find that funny. Anyway, let's goha-waitaminute. Frisk, there is someone there, he pointed behind her, there was a girl, almost as old as Frisk but only by one or two year. Frisk turned to look around and noticed the girl was wearing a yellow and green stripped shirt. She turned around revealing eyes oscillating between red and brown and a little tool for gardening in her hand. It looked like a little rusty dagger, still she remained there, a bit shocked. "How is it they can see me? Even As-Flowey can't."

\- H-howdy, wel-welcome to the Und-derground, she said in a sweet voice.

My… my name's Chara, and you?

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Yeah surprise no Flowey yet it's for next chapter sorry. But we got here Chara and please I KNOW HER REPUTATION SO DON'T YELL AT ME TO KILL HER CAUSE THAT'S NOT IN THE PLOT, IS IT CLEAR? Here she's not a megalomaniac. She's the kind adoptive sibling Asriel had with him and that never let him down in hard times. Beside, they will pretty much need her help if they want to get out alive and pretty much *spoiler alert* avoid the apocalypse cause there is two part to this. The first one heavily focus on new thing and the usual journey trough the Underground. This is what I call the "Rewritten arc". As for the next part, it takes place after monsters, now free learn how much the situation worsened and will try to save the world because if any magic were to go extinct, great calamity would strike humanity and the rest of this new world. This will be the "New Tale arc". *spoiler avoided you can read again* anyway as it might now be obvious this will contain a few dozens of chapter. Yes, there will be filler chapters and I'm already sorry but they still are needed sometimes. Don't worry though, there will be lots of action after we meet a certain "someone" heehee. I hope I can avoid the cringe as much as possible, really, cringe can ruins a cool story in the blink of an eye. See ya in the next part!


	4. Chapter 3 - Royal family

Ok so let's do a thing. I will start three chapters and once done, I'll publish once every day… or maybe every two days until I got enough stuff done… also I'm unaware of how many chapters there will be to each area. While there might be some fights with monsters the part with the most action will surely be at the boss of each zone. Now less talking (from me not the cast sorry) and MORE STORY!

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The three of them were shocked. The younger one to be seen, the duo to discover someone down there. Chara was a wizard before. Her powers influenced vegetal life, like a dryad from mythology, but weaker. For some reason, all phantoms were wizards who found death and could not let go of this world. Only another wizard can see one that is a ghost. They always kept their powers and could somewhat interact with solid things. Chara died as always by the hands of the humans and their planned failed. When she awoken there she tried to go back to the castle, only nobody noticed her. Happy to be alive, she became more bitter when she realized what her condition meant. Meanwhile, Flowey was already there and once in a while got visit from Toriel, who still called him Arsiel when no one was around. He liked being reunited with his mom, but feared what his dad would react like, especially after hearing how he declared war on humanity again. After listening to them chitchat a bit, Chara inevitably discovered the truth and was sad to see her brother met a fate maybe worse then she had. Fast forward to the present and there we are. One ghost, two humans. Chara spoke first as saw them back away, as they just realized she was a bit transparent.

\- Hey wait don't be scared!... It's, she let out a long sigh, just been way too long since I last talked to someone…

\- W-w-why are y-you t-transp-parent? Frisk asked, she was the one who got the biggest shock.

\- What? Long since you talked to someone? Are, Clovis almost gagged at the thought, are monsters…

\- NO! she cut him with a panicked note in her voice, No… no they aren't. But they can't see or hear me. If I'm correct, I'm a ghost… you know that's really, hard, in a way. I mean…

\- To stay sane? He asked.

\- … Yeah, she looked down, sad, it's worst then any kind of torture, being… being forced to watch your friends and family grieve you and then have to go on. Ha… having t-to… I'm sorry, she bursted in tears, I'm so sad but I'm so relieved to finally talk to someone. This isolation was breaking my mind. I-I don't ev-ven know i… *sob* if I could hold on much longer. I… I… sorry *sniff* I got carried away. So… *sniff* why… why are you two here? She seemed more calm, just occasionally sniffing or sobbing a bit.

\- My dad and I, Frisk started, got chased by hunters and when they cornered us up there just minutes ago, we had to jump.

\- No one can survive that fall without magic so I bet you two have some kind of powers, right? Heh… funny, me too I'm a magician. I have control over most kind of vegetal life. She laughed a bit. Come in handy when you have to decorate your house quickly haha…

\- Hey, Frisk got their attention, why don't we move while talking, we can't stay there and since we passed the seal up the hole, the way up is now a dead end, she stated.

Agreement from both. Now mostly silent. They walked down a little path where Chara was standing when they saw her first moments ago. In the next room was a single flower on a little patch of grass. As they walked in, the flower seemed to move a bit.

\- …!? Is there someone? The flower suddenly turned around, revealing she had a face in place of a stem. Howdy! I'm Flowey, Flowey the flour… uh I mean flower hehe. "Omg… I messed up"

Frankly, they were not expecting to encounter their first monster right away. But they relaxed once Chara told them he was clean. They even giggle a bit at the flower's mistake.

\- Pfff yeah, Frisk said, pretty amused, definitely looked like you passed trough a windmill a got "floored".

\- Frisk, Clovis said trying to supress a laugh, for that pun you'll get "grounded" for some time, you know.

"HAAA MAKE IT STOP" Both Chara and Flowey thought. Then, soft giggling was heard as a figure hiding in the shadows advanced toward them. It was a monster a bit taller then Frisk's dad, she looked a bit like a goat and was wearing a purple robe with an emblem on it.

\- Hahaha… ho my, she said, getting the two mages tensed. I usually come here for two reasons. To see if any new human felled here and to be sure Flowey doesn't feel "BONELY". But it seems he got new companions. Her attitude (and the pun) immediately made them feel more at ease. If I may ask, what are your names?

\- I'm Frisk, nice to meet you… uh…

\- Toriel Dreemurr, but you can call me Tori eh.

\- Clovis, and I assure you it's a pleasure to meet you. Your majesty. "He said WHAT NOW?!" everybody thought.

\- What? Why are you looking at me like I have two heads?

\- It's just that… you should not call me like this. I'm no longer queen and if you want explanations we'll have to talk about it at my house, alright? In the meantime just call me Toriel.

\- Dad how did you knew? Frisk was pretty perplex.

\- Well.. history books do not only mention human kings and queens, you know.

\- Oh… ok then.

\- So, Toriel started, what brings you here? We had few news from the surface except whenever a human felt here. I think one of them mentioned hunters. The last one said being chased by them.

\- To make it short we were in the same kind of trouble. We… had to jump.

\- To jump!? But nobody get out of this kind of thing without a scratch. Now she was the perplex one.

\- Ahem. Clovis cleared his throat. Well not normal people. We are magicians. He showed his Soul. And this is my trait. My daughter inherited from both me and Amelia, my… my wife.

\- By how you said it I bet she's dead right? "Asriel never had much tact," Chara muttered. I'm sorry for your loss. "Ok, maybe a little, what are we gonna do with him?"

\- Chara, that was rude you know? Frisk said that by reflex. And who is Asriel anyway?

\- WHAT! Flowey's voice got so high they had to cover their ears. CHARA IS DEAD, DEAD YOU HEAR ME!? AND THEY WON'T. COME. BACK. He ducked underground. Toriel had tears slowly starting to run down her face.

\- W… where… where did you heard that name?

\- But Chara's he..re oh darnit I messed up.

\- Toriel, Clovis seemed pretty hesitant to talk about this as it seemed to be a touchy subject, we must inform you of something, Chara's not really dead. They are a ghost but you cannot hear her nor see hear. For some reason we are the only ones that can see her. None of us knows why.

\- Please, describe her to me. I want to be sure of what you said.

\- Well, she is a bit younger then me but not that much. I'm 17, Frisk said, and she is wearing a striped shirt like me, but yeallow and green with one big yellow stripe in the middle. Her voice is softer then mine tho. And she told us she could control plants.

\- Alright, alright, I believe you… ha I know something so I can see where she is. She could sometimes grow plants under her. That way, I, we won't lose her again… As she said that Chara was thinking about the idea.

\- I could give it a try, she said after a few moments, turning toward Frisk. I mean it would consume too much energy after a while but for now I'm going to roll with it.

\- She say she is okay to try, Frisk gladly said, but she won't be able to do it all day. Chara stated it could be wasting energy if she overdo it. But maybe we should catch up with Flo-wait. How did you called him Chara?

\- Asriel. The Dreemurr family adopted me at the time I felt down there. Asriel and me became like siblings and we were all so happy! Alas, I was foolish and after we, uh, may had accidentally poisoned dad with buttercups when we tried to bake a pie? Yeah I know, dumb idea and the recipe asked for cups of butter. Giggled was heared. Hey, that's not funny, death by buttercups poisoning is painful you know…

\- Wait a minute, Clovis got serious, you mean, you ingested buttercups? Wow… that's kinda crazy. Why would you do this anyway?

\- I had a plan. If a boss monster could barely survive, what would happen to a human? So with that I made up my mind and sent Azzy to get to flowers. After that, there was no turning back, I got deadly ill and in a matter of days, I died. The plan was for my brother to take my Soul so we could cross the barrier and gather the six more we needed to break it and free monster kind. Tell you what? We had god-like powers and we still managed to die. Congrats to me, best plan ever Chara, ten on ten, no flaws. Yeah, we bited the dust, no pun intended.

\- …Wow that's so crazy, Frisk could barely believe what she heard from the ghost. But does that mean that by extension you're… a princess?

\- … uh, the young girl made a face that told just how uncertain she was, hmmmaybe..?

\- Sorry for interrupting you my child, but maybe we could go and search for Asriel… He'll explain some things for you if he's okay with it. He's emotive and shy, but he is a kind one with a big heart. For now, tough, he could be anywhere in the ruins, so we should split up and go check everywhere he could be. Are you okay or was I a bit rude?

\- I think we should at least move or we won't go anywhere, Frisk's father said, and we could search too.

\- Thank you, but before I leave I have to warn you. Toriel's face was stern, emotions gone. My ex, Asgore, declared war against humanity a short time after our children died and no human made it to him. The few one I know are alive are scattered trough all the Underground and trying to survive. Some monsters will attack you because they are curious and never saw a human before. Be kind to them and they'll go away. It may sound easy but some monsters may want to kill you to take your Souls to him. Up to now, he has been in possession of only one Soul. But please, she was concerned, please be careful at all cost. It's time to go, we'll meet back at my house, it's at the end of the ruins. As she turned and walked to the arch, she gave them one last glance. Good luck. And just like that, the shadows swallowed her.

\- Wow she is so tensed I've never seen her like that, Chara was confused. What got her like that? Anyway since you're magicians everything will be okay, right?

They nodded and the group pressed forward.

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Holy sweet baby Jesus that was long to do (almost 2000 words for me it's long to write) I'm sure you read that in a matter of minutes by dang that was… wow ok my hands are shaking. (result is : I over abused that poor autocorrect lol XD) Going to have our first fights next chapter, toodles! *Author ran away*


	5. Chapter 4 - DO YOUR JOB!

(Sorry I don't know if I can update chapters already posted so I just deleted this one and added the lines this time I hope I won't forget it in the future) Alright I hope all of you had a great holiday with your family and got all you wanted for Christmas. Also happy new year (I know I'm late -_-'). Ok so time for a new chapter even if it's a short one, sorry. Ok let's go.

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[Somewhere in Hotland]

\- Darling, there is something shocking I must tell you!

\- W-w-what is it?

\- Two humans felt in the underground.

\- Any proof of it? It's been THREE weeks that I work on f-f-fixing that damn condensator that messed up in the Core… W-we all know what hap-pened last time.

\- Yeah you had to go fetch the blueprints in that creepy place again. Why you just don't blew it up?

\- MAYBE BECAUSE MY FREAKING LAB IS BUILT ON IT!

\- …

\- …

\- … hu…

\- Yeah. S-sorry. Anyway, your p-proof?

\- Well, as much as I like the fact that I no longer rely on these inefficient electric batteries, the magic ones you made for my needs are messing up sometime. Don't worry it's not like I'll blew up any moment… I hope.

\- O-ok and so?

\- When they go out of control, I find my myself connected to the magic flowing trough this place. Like a kind of network if you want.

\- Does it do anything bad with your system?

\- No but what's extraordinary is the fact I can then feel the presence of every magical being. Sadly it's not precise enough to locate them. Still darling, I felt it clearly and if I can only sense MAGIC then you should now what this means.

\- W-what?! Y-y-you mean t-two mag-gic-cians? Do… do you… uh… expect m-me to report it to Und-dyne?

\- … Yes.

\- BUT SHE'LL SKEWER THEM UNTIL THEY LOOKS LIKE KEBABS WHAT ARE YOU THINKING SHE WOULD DO BESIDE THAT THERE IS LIKE 99% CHANCE EVENTS GOES THIS DAMN WAY SO I HOPE YOUR JUST JOKING AND NOT THINKING SERIOUSLY ABOUT IT OR I SWEAR I'LL HUNT YOU DOWN WITH THE NEAREST WRENCH I CAN FIND AND DECONSTRUCT YOU!

\- (That… was pretty scary) … You know what dear? Forget about it.

\- Right… hum, a-anyway you know that condensator I mentioned earlier?

\- Yes, why?

\- Well, it… it s-seems to be in charge of c-c… ugh, inchargeofcummunicationstroughtheunderground. (please don't get mad)

\- WHAT! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO MAKE THE NEXT EPISODE OF MY SHOW?! THE FANS ARE CRAVING FOR IT AND I CAN'T LET MY PRECIOUS VIEWERS DOWN! SO DO. YOUR. JOB… or do you want me to throw all your manga then your anime in the Core?

\- WAAAA OKok you won Imma g-go fix it please don't throw my mangaaaaaaaaa…

\- Ugh ok now I have to wait. Meanwhile I should inform the king of this… Screw it, I have to read these emails my fans sent me before!

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OK so you may get the idea. Sometime we'll pass a short chapter over some character's POV instead of Frisk and co. And I swear my characters are out of control. This conversation was not on the right topic. Damn you MTT and your fans why didn't you followed you'r script and informed Asgore right away? XD I'll have to be careful with him or he'll get out of hand and will end up doing god know what to this story. Anyway let's hope we're safe now. Bye!


	6. Chapter 5 - Ribbit

Ok so it seems I forgot about the fights I mentioned in chapter 3. I'm so dumb to forget something like that I'm really sorry but I'll make it up to you guys/girls. On an other side the thing I hate most is that whenever I have ideas I've got nothing to note. Curse my block-note less life lol. Warning : no inspiration for this chapter it might be weird so I'll fix it later when I have the time to. Ok let's not take roots here.

* * *

As we go back to the trio, Chara already explained how the ruins were filled with puzzles of all kind. Pushing buttons, leaves path, hidden switches in a hole. Already in the sixth room they heard a sound

\- Ribbit, ribbit.

In front of them was a frog like monster that seemed to protect her (his?) child which could only be seen by it's little shiny eyes.

\- Ok, Chara explained, here's a froggit. This little guy here usually just want company. Talk to him a bit and it'll be satisfied so we can go on. Just watch out for it's mood is pretty unstable. One moment it's friendly and you wanna pet it to death and the second after you have a fly shaped bullet in your chest, he just don't know what's good or bad. You'll see, the ruins monsters almost all act like children.

\- Alright? Frisk whispered, what do we saAAAAAAAAAAA!

The monster jumped and landed in her face… Meanwhile Clovis was utterly dying from laughing so much. After a little convincing that Frisk was not food, the little frog just hoped away to the next room.

\- Ho my god your face was priceless, her dad said, you should have seen it hahahaha.

\- I don't think I've laugh that much since last time Azzy got fireballed away. I don't remember what he said but mom was REALLY angry. The face he did was hilarious. Monsters can sometimes make facial expressions that we, humans, can't. He made a derpy face so funny I couldn't stop laughing.

\- Still *I* think that wasn't funny to take my third encounter with a monster in my face.

\- Ok… Clovis maybe we should calm… argh I'm thinking about it again pffffff I'm really trying to not laugh my lungs out at the moment.

\- OK OK I GET IT! Frisk was slightly annoyed. Apparently you two find that funny urgh what a way to start this day, first we're chased, then we jump down a hole, encounter a ghost, (she is counting on her fingers) a flower that was the former prince of monsters, the king's ex, and I get an heart-attack from a frog. I swear I hope Toriel's not keen on parties or I'm outa here.

\- Ok stop Frisk. Her dad used his shirt to clean his glasses, you may be upset right now but when you'll think of it later you will find it amusing.

\- She sighed, guess you're right. Now, do we move or we wait like idiots to take roots here?

Still talking between them they got to the next room, the spike room which was a needle in the foot. Three more rooms later the Froggit was standing near them. As they approached it, the monster turned to Frisk

\- Ribbit. Sorry for earlier ribbit, human. Ribbit ribbit I didn't meant to scare you, ribbit.

\- It's okay, she smiled a bit, I don't blame you. She crouched near it, just be careful around people okay? And gave it a little pat on the head.

\- Okay, ribbit, I promise I'll be careful. The little frog blushed and waved them goodbye as they continued.

After pushing the rock to get the spikes down, they suddenly found themselves surrounded by little monster that looked like gelatine mixed with mold or moss. Seeing Chara pointing behind them, Clovis and Frisk turned around in time to see a giant worm-like version of the small monsters charging at them. They jumped out of the way and the monster crashed in the wall, stunned for a moment.

\- Chara what the hell is that thing!? Frisk summoned blue bullets to gain some time.

\- That's bad, the princess answered, these little things are called moldsmals. They share a unique primitive mind. Normally they are harmless and you can walk past them. However that thing there, she pointed the big one, it's called a moldbygg. Sometime, when a moldmals is cut from the "hive" if I may call it that, it gains sentience. Moving around take matter away because of their soft body being easily damaged.

\- Do you know how that thing got so big? Clovis didn't really wanted to get rammed by this thing the size of a little car at full speed.

\- That's were I was going. When it gains it's own consciousness, the first thing they do is seek decaying vegetals to keep their mass so you can guess my powers are ineffective on them. Now you have to know that if the hive is passive, a moldbygg is pretty aggressive. This thing can take control of nearby moldsmals as they are easily affected by emotions. The best way out of here is to hurt it.

\- Ok but what about the little ones?

\- Once the big one is away they will go passive again. If they didn't attacked yet it's because the moldbygg is not angry. They suddenly turned red and the monster let out a sound between a screech and blurp. Chara panicked. ItakebackwhatIsaidjustmove!

Then something strange happened. Something, like a shockwave, flew from the worm like gelatin and colors faded a bit. Not asking what it was, the two humans started to dodge the strange projectiles sent by the moldsmals. Strange balls that divided in eight smaller ones in random directions. As Frisk directly used bullets to counter the ones coming at her, Clovis used his power to deviate the ones going his way. It was pretty easy as they balls were slow. Suddenly a big ball got launched from the moldbygg and the smaller monster stopped their attacks, some projectiles still in the air. They got out of the way but Clovis got hurt in the same spot he was shot. While not deadly, it was messy. Supressing a scream, he managed to get up. Seeing her dad in this position infuriated Frisk, which started firing white, blue and orange bullets so fast that monster couldn't replicate. Stopping her assault for a moment she suddenly hang the creature in the air before launching it violently at the smaller ones, the impact blowing the moldsmals away and wounding the bigger one badly. Starting to comprehend it couldn't win the moldbygg crawled away pitifully, it's color turning from an angry red to a shy tint of yellow and green and at the same time, colors returned to normal. Chara just stood there the whole time, hanging in the air and after the monster's defeat she thought : "Note to myself, never anger Frisk if I value my life as a ghost". She quickly flew back beside Clovis, which was getting healed by Frisk. Still shaken she couldn't concentrate properly and the green pulsing light was wavering and going out sometimes.

\- Frisk, the spirit spoke softly, please stop. You are tired I see it. I'll tend to Clovis injuries. I don't know healing magic but most plants I know off can help hasten the natural healing of the body.

\- … Alright, Frisk said half-heartedly, but after it I'll have to talk with you, she look to a Whimsum meekly listening to them, in private. I'm going to rest here, if I sleep just wake me up after your done, alright?

Chara nodded and started to focus on her powers. Some plants sprouted out of the ground. Frisk recognized some but she couldn't identify the rest. The girl laid on her side and closed her eyes. She quickly felt in a dreamless sleep. During this time Chara was preparing a paste with the herbs she grew. As much as she was immaterial, she could manipulate some things more easily than others and because of the nature of her powers, she could easily manipulate things that are, or were once, living.

As she thought back on how Frisk defeated the monster, Chara became worried. To think the girl sleeping beside her almost hurt it to death. "I have to warn them about EXP and LOVE or else we might lose them sooner than later… especially Frisk. She has such a bond with her father that she become emotional when it comes to him. Hmmm… it's decided, I'll them about it when they wake up both. Meanwhile maybe Frisk could talk to me about this private thing." She would have to talk about it with an old friend "but first, she thought, I have to make sure Clovis shoulder heal properly". While she was ruminating, she had applied the paste on the wound. In a few hours she could get it off and make another one as it also acted like a sponge and absorbed the blood leaking into it from them man's injury. Still, they would have to seek Toriel if they wanted this to heal quickly and without infection.

* * *

Alright sorry I started this like… two or three weeks ago? Sorry again I just didn't have the motivation. Also the weather made it so there's no school today yeah! At least that let me finish the chapter ^_^ … and get a headache (r.i.p. head) also yes, yes, yes EXP and LOVE are still a thing but it's a bit different and use some backstory on the war so I guess next chapter might be a filler? Or something like that sorry I still don't know what to do… and where is Flowey I planned to find him back in this chapter! These characters are getting out of hand… got to do the rest now… *sigh* what did I get myself into? bye.


	7. Chapter 6 - An old acquaintance

Ok so I warn you already it's gonna be short and pretty much filled with talking so endure it ok? Next time we'll have clarification about some things like LOVE and EXP. I also had a new idea for the Undergrounds flora and I think it make sense. Ok I'm going so enjoy the story… Crap I'm talking like Undyne XD

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Chara was making her way trough the ruins and stopped before the door leading to Snowdin's forest. Wondering about the time, she sprouted a little plant. The flower looked like a mix between the petals of a tulip on top of the thorny stalk of a rose. However, the petals were a vibrant purple, scintillating as if they were made of beautifully chiseled amethyst instead of being part of a living thing. This stunning flower, blooming only at night was given the name of amethyst flame because at night the flower, upon opening after gathering luminous energy during daytime, created a bright light that looked like a flame around her, making the petals sparkle like they were ablaze with pure light shining under the deep purple cover. Such a spectacle was rare as it was only blooming in the area between Waterfall and Hotland. Nobody knew why it was at that specific place but as a plant, Chara could easily make some sprout here and there from the ground. The one she grew was still making light. Nodding to herself, she got trough the door to see the forest. Alas, she had no time to look at everything and scurried right to Waterfall.

[Before Waterfall's Grey door]

There she was. "I hope he can still use the grey room… it's been a long time since we had to talk". To say she was nervous is a euphemism, she was terrified about recent events. What if it didn't work or that she'd find nothing but the Void behind it? She needed answers to her questions. As soon as possible and only him could give them to her. "It's alright girl, you can do it. You did It before so there's absolutely nooooooo reason at all it won't work… and that you'll fall for some time in an endless pit before going back up faster than a freakin rocket"

\- Okay, she said, one, she lifted her hand, two, over the knob and it was shaking, three!

She open the door and was immediately relieved to see the familiar grey space before her. She got inside and waited a bit, then she saw a portal open and a tall skeleton in a lab coat got trough it. Lights in his eye sockets, holes in the hands and one crack starting from each eye as he had a worried look on his face.

\- **At least I'm not melting here… most of the time.**

\- Gaster it's not time for stupid Windings it's urgent! "Why can't he use normal speech like most monsters?"

\- **HA** hem, (if you can't guess he's going from Windings to normal speech) sorry Chara. Been a long time… how is Asriel doing?

\- Hmmm good like always I guess. Listen I'd like to talk but I'm not here to chitchat with you. I have to go back to the ruins before day.

\- And why is that?

\- First, two humans, dad and daughter, felt in the Underground. Two, they are sorcerers. Like me. And they can see me. So yeah I need answers. Now.

\- Ok let me get this straight. You say two magicians felt in the hellish place we call home and… THEY CAN SEE YOU!? ... No… no that can't be… I feel I will regret asking this but can you give me their names? And how do they look?

\- Huuuuu…. Ok? So the guy is called Clovis and he is tall, got brown hairs, well it looks more like a bush but that's not the point, green eyes, healthy as a human can be I guess, and he possess the Integrity trait.

\- Alright. Now the girl. "Please don't say Frisk please any other name"

\- So the girl is like me, the same age I think but her sweater has tw-

\- Two purple lines while the rest is blue. Her eyes are also green while her hairs are brown and go down a bit after the shoulders. She got the Determination trait. Am I right?

\- H… how? And I guess saying her name would be useless?

\- The two of them talked at the same time. Frisk. Embarrassed silence from both.

\- ~Akwaaaaaard~ Chara whispered.

\- Well, I owe you some explanations.

\- Rrrrrrright… and you do seem to know more than me about what's really going on.

\- *sigh* I searched for some time now. I mean, I searched the right person I could contact, the... one that… may free us.

\- Whoa there, wait a minute. Did I misheard you or did I heard you really say, free, us?

\- Hmmmmmmmm… maybe?

\- BUT YOU KNOW THAT SEVEN HUMAN SOULS ARE NEEDED TO BREAK THE BARRIER AND WE CAN'T LET THAT HAPPEN BECAUSE HUMANITY WOULD JUST WIPE MONSTER KIND BY BLOWING THIS PLACE UP!

\- "I should know when to shut up with her." Okay just listen. I searched for months because my magic is diminishing. It's still there but it's getting weaker so I need to escape the Void. Forever. And only Sans can do it but as you know he gave up long ago on the machine. But with Frisk we might have a chance. A chance to both get me out of here and to free us without making a bloodshed.

\- Hmph, I have to say... I'm intrigued. Go on, what's your plan?

\- Great, because you'll play a big part in it. So here's how it work…

* * *

Nope not gonna hear the plan yet. I know I'm repeating myself but these characters are uncontrollable help me! XD And saying I made this within an hour that's great! Ok next objective : make one chapter in a minute. #missionimpossible lol. But now it's more like #missioncleaningupthetext I made so much errors! The text also missed some words... At least the auto corrector can help me a bit. Ok bye.


	8. Chapter 7 - PELLETS EVERYWHERE!

I think the subject is obvious. Enjoy!

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Clovis woke up first, his wound mostly healed thanks to the herbal paste, which also helped to avoid infection, Chara made. Frisk woke up a bit later… but where was the ghost? They waited and she finally showed up a few minutes later. Looking closely to the humans, Chara saw a bit of gelatin from the moldbygg that clanged to their clothes. "Yuck, sticky and gross, hopefully we'll reach Snowdin's inn in a few days…" To be honest, everything slimy disgusted her, except the moldsmals, she found them so cute. They were fun to probe and watch wiggling back for some time like big pieces of jello. Eventually, Toriel would notice and tell her to stop disturbing them. "Ok the past is the past. Now I hope they'll believe my excuse… well I DID searched him so that'll be a white lie of sort."

\- Ho! She feigned to be surprised. So you're already awake. Sorry I wasn't here but I had to search for Asriel. You know what? I found him but he is in the leaf maze so you will have to fall trough it.

\- The maze… Clovis then remembered what Chara said about this room. Wait, isn't that supposed to be in the next room? Then let's HA! He putted his hand against his bad shoulder, which was hurting again, as the girls ran (flight in Chara's case) to him.

\- Dad, Frisk asked with a concerned look, are you okay?

\- Y-yeah, he enveloped the injured part with blue magic, but I will have to be careful. I think the bone is misplaced now so I have to hold it when I'm not resting.

\- Chara approached. Don't worry, mom should be able to fix this. In worst case, I could always use plants to make something to calm the pain. Now, do you want to wait and let me and Frisk handle my brother?

\- Yes, he agreed, beside I would not be much help like this. Looking at both. I will wait for you. Back to the ghost. You better make sure Frisk don't get a scratch or you won't hear the end of it.

\- Jeez dad it's not like the battle with this worm thing. What could a flower do anyway?

\- Hahem, Chara shot her an annoyed glance, you forgot he's my brother so don't hurt him and he also is the prince of monsters.

\- … ho.

\- Let's move on now, who knows where Azz could go.

They walked to the next room, the one with the leaves maze, and if Chara just floated trough, Frisk and to jump to make a hole she could pass in. As they landed, they immediately spotted the monster in the most far away corner from the door (or whatever the thing to go up is) and Frisk called to him.

\- flowey… no response. Flowey. Still nothing. Ugh ASRIEL! If he had no roots he would be on the ceiling right now.

\- WHAT?! W-w-who is i… You?! What do you want? And how do you know my name?!

\- I heard it from Toriel, that's what was agreed to be said.

\- That's a bit cheesy for a lie, the ghost stated, you're sure he will believe it?

Frisk just made a slight gesture meaning, "I don't know".

\- Hmph… I don't believe you. Now go away and leave me alone. Tension was starting to build between the human and the monster.

\- No.

\- No? Asriel was surprised.

\- No. Better yet, you're coming with me to Tori's house.

\- Hold your horses there, I will not go with you! You know NOTHING of me and I met you for like, tear formed in the corner of his eyes but he wiped them off with a thin vine, thirty seconds before you started to say shit about MY **DEAD** SISTER LIKE SHE WAS JUST THERE AND IT WAS NORMAL! HOW DO YOU WANT **ME** TO BELIEVE **YOU** WHEN YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT?! The flower, in pure rage, summoned a wave of pellets that were sent at Frisk. She easily countered it, staying calm.

\- You know, a bullet flew each time a pellet came too close to her taste, I am not lying and I do not say "shit" about things that are serious. That is the first thing you should know about me. Blue bullets went to immobilize the flower, but it just ducked underground to reappear behind the girl.

\- Char let out a scream, BEHIND YOU!

\- And you, the flower's face darkened to a mad smile as his voice dropped on each word, to NEVER a **NgeR mE! DIE! HAHAHAAHAHAHAHA!** In short, Asriel cracked and became crazy for the rest of the following event.

\- Hu-ho… Chara looked very nervous, Frisk, watch out! When he's like this, you have to wait for him to calm down.

Like with the moldbygg, a strange thing came out of the monster, like a shockwave, and colors faded again. However, this drain was more important and tint of grey replaced some of walls and leaves around tem.

"Alright, Frisk thought as she focused, I can't let myself get hurt or it'll be the end for me and one more Soul for Asgore."

In the blink of an eye, interlocked circles of pellets surrounded Frisk and she had to slide, duck and jump to avoid them. She tried to fight back but the flower ducked underground every time to reappear out of her field of view to launch a new attack. On a particularly hard one, she got an idea. "This might work if I time myself correctly." She launched a small wave of bullets toward Asriel, who ducked again to reappear in her back. As soon as he got out, Frisk summoned a literal wall of projectile and slammed it on the flower, which sustained heavy damage as she could see by one of the petals being shred and long scratches covering his face.

\- **ha… Haha..** **HAHAHA! THAT'S YOUR BEST?! PETTY. Now… IT'S TIME TO SAY GOODBYE!**

A countless amount of bullets flew at the young magician, who couldn't counter them all. They where coming closer, closer, overwhelming and from everywhere. "I failed, she thought. I can't win, I'm too weak. Sorry dad, looks like you'll have to make it without me…" She had a resigned smile, and closed her eyes, not wanting to see the magic tearing her body apart. Suddenly :

\- NO! Chara screamed stronger than the sound of the hundreds of pellets colliding together as they closed in on Frisk and both belligerent heard it. I won't let that happen! Suddenly thick, thorny vines surged from the ground. Around the girl to protect her, like a living shield. One of them coiled itself around the flower, restraining him. He pulled away, bited, sent pellets trough it, but its grasp never diminished in strength, until he was struck by a sudden memory.

 _One day, he was playing with his sister near Hotland when one of the elevator suddenly came down crashing, the shock sending the prince, who was the closer, flying toward the lava before he heard a scream like the one that was shot, and a giant vine grabbed him as a bit of the fur was burnt on his ears. Looking up he saw Chara straitening her arm toward him, she saved his life that day, and he never forgot it._

"Th-these vines! Ho my god, and that scream! It was Chara's voice! It's her, but h-how?!"

The flower was shocked and didn't moved while the pellets all fizzled out in thin air, his will to fight crushed by the guilt he felt. His face returned to normal, but instead of his big grin, he was crying. Crying because he nearly killed an innocent, because of the fact he couldn't see the truth, that he couldn't imagine his sister stuck like him in some way, and the weight of it was unbearable. Finally, Frisk got back up and saw Chara's limp body on the ground, the power of the counter-attack having depleted her magic and her mental as well. As a ghost, she couldn't die, but she could get unconscious. Frisk barely noticed the colors were back, she couldn't care less than that as her friend required all her attention. The movement she made where he saw only an empty space intrigued the still crying flower.

\- Chara! The shout got him back on his roots (… feet? Foot? Does roots even count as one or multiple "feet/foot/whatever" in flowers?) and for a moment, he swore that he saw a faint red glow tracing the form of a human but Frisk was already there, magically scanning the ghost to judge about her energy left, like her grandmother teached her to do.

\- What was that? Asriel asked.

\- Can you not make me more troubled as I already try to digest the fact YOU TRIED TO KILL ME!? Her voice was a bit raspy but she still had enough to scream.

\- OKOKOK! I'm sorry, he glanced down in shame, avoiding eye contact. *sigh* You know I think we should first tend to Chara, because it was her, right? I recognized her voice and when these vines appeared of nowhere I remembered… hmmm… it's an embarrassing memory. I mean not embarrassing but-

\- Will you help me yes or no? The young girl was pretty annoyed right now.

\- Ugh yeah yeah wait sec for god's sake. Tending vines like they were little arms the air shined while a slice of some kind of pie or cake popped from god now where, eliciting a strange look from the human. Magic, the flower responded.

\- Ho… what do we do with that?

\- Ok that's awkward but where is her mouth? Frisk pointed a place in the air. Alright make place.

The monster got to where Chara was, looked one last time at the pie, and crammed it up in the ghost's mouth, where it disappeared like that. Then the unexpected happened.

Asriel was punched by he's sister.

* * *

Holy crap 1691 words I think I'm gonna rest a bit. First, some clarifications. You know, when Chara became a ghost, she became more of a ghost like monster, her powers holding her body together. What happen is that she still got a good percentage of physical matter, but it needs to be sustained by the magic of her soul, which in turns weaken her trait and that will make her Soul a lighter shade of red than Frisk's. Still she used lots of her magic to protect Frisk from the literal pellets slaughter but the throwback was that the percentage of magic dropped drastically, she will not turn to dust like monsters, and she is still a ghost duh. What happened was that with more matter then magic, her automatic invisibility was going on and off, Asriel could interact with her and that's also why she could punch him in the face lol. As for why the heck Flour the Flowey… I MESSED UP DANG IT! Hahem anyway as for why flower boy got cranked up was that he couldn't accept that Chara wasn't dead like him and was forced to live without being able to reconciliate with Asriel and he felt guilt because it was him who didn't let them get the six remaining Souls needed to break the barrier so that eventually resulted in depression and etc. etc. while Toriel was doing her best to cheer him up. On that note, good night (10 pm yeah -_-' ) and I hope you'll like the next chapter as I have many fun ideas haha. Byebye!


	9. Chapter 8 - A sweet, sweet devil

Ok time to go on so I read a bit back and I'm pretty sure this will be fun.

* * *

\- ACK! Asriel wasn't ready to get punched in the face, even less by his long thought dead sister. OOOOOOOWWWWCH! Chara, what the hell?!

\- HOMYGODAZZYI'MSORRY! The ghost was panicking a bit before she calmed down and looked quizzically at the flower. Wait, you can see me? But how? She looked at herself to see that her body was less transparent then before. A whisper escaped her lips. What happened?

\- Frisk stepped in. Well, you saved my life against your crazy brother, "I'm not crazy" he mumbled back but she ignored him, and you fainted.

\- Is that what… ho yeah I remember now. But still it's kinda weird. I mean, why can Asriel see me? Clovis, who was concerned to not see her daughter back and having heard screaming, came down.

\- I heard somebody scream. Did I missed something important?

The others exchanged a weird look before Chara explained what happened, the battle and how the prince could see her now. Clovis looked in his bag and grabbed an old book on magic. Rapidly flipping the almost yellow pages until he found one talking about ghosts of all types. He was quick to find what he was searching.

\- Here in this paragraph, it says that "Sometimes, when a wizard die, their souls won't shatter and they'll come back as a ghost, no clear explanation provided to this day. It seems that the magic powers of the deceased kick in to stabilize what matter can be used and create a semi-material body for the human. Researches showed that once reincarnated as ghosts, they have a body much more closer to a monster than that of a human. Being mostly made of magic, material interactions can be quite hard. Subjects that were willing to help in the studies showed to have all their powers but tried out much quicker then when they alive. Interrestingly, the magic and physical matter percentage of the ghosts are constantly fluctuating. It was also noted that when a ghost used most of it's magic suddenly, the effort made them faint while the quantity of magic dropped at alarming levels. Still, no subjects turned to dust like monsters do. Something make their souls much stronger then that of a normal human. What it is, has yet to be discovered." The next page is on information about ghost monsters, nothing useful there. He looked away from the book to stare at the princess. Now we know why he can see you. Looking back at the book. Hmmm… wait I overlooked something. Listen to this "Most wizards that tired to the point of unconsciousness took at least a full week to regenerate their powers, up to a full month. Any healing magic or items can help hasten the recovery and usually they wake up nearly instantly. The recovery time was found to be almost halved but always took at least a week. Whatever make them invisible to the regular humans then seems to activate itself. This is the last I could learn on them. – Royal wizard Sytaros, 16th working for His Majesty, 13XX." Wow, seems like this book is way more valuable then I first thought. Frisk you know that all the royal wizards consigned their knowledge in a magic book?

\- Hu yeah but just whe…re? *Gasp* Do you think?

\- Clovis was smiling widely. Indeed, it seems that all these years I've been in possession of the Mystic Book of Zaryl, first royal magician and the one that created this book in which he wrote himself, made to be passed from one royal wizard to the next. And saying everybody thought it was lost after the war! Haha, how it ended up in my library, I don't know, but I don't care.

\- Dad?

\- Hu sorry I was carried away. What is it?

\- Those two stopped listening after the first page, she was pointing at the siblings having a debate about something. They started arguing about something, I don't know what.

They walked to them and most surprisingly, they where talking about chocolate. Asriel was talking as they came closer.

\- But when chocolate is nearly pure cocoa it's so bitter that it's disgusting!

\- Yeah?! Well don't tell white chocolate is better! Do you know how much sugar they put in that stuff? Enough to make me feel sick! And they have the nerves to call this "chocolate"? Ha! In your dreams bro.

\- Well, it's not everybody that like bitter things like you. And frankly your tastes about candies were always weird! Chocolate might be sugary when it's white, but at least nobody spit it out when they munch a bit of it! So I'm sorry, sis, but I strongly disagree with you!

\- I disagree even more, crybaby!

\- Smooth talker!

\- LIAR!

\- TRAITOR!

Frisk stepped in before it all went downhill. She pushed each other aside and made sure Chara's vines went back in the ground and that Asriel's pellets fizzled. She took a deep breath before she said.

\- NOW YOU TWO SHUT UP BEFORE I RAM YOU WITH ENOUGH BULLETS TO TURN YOU BOTH INTO SWISS CHEESE! *Breathing to calm down* Now, can we say that even if you don't agree, you can respect the opinion of each other? Her answer was a quick "No!" from both. Hmph, well then, let's agree on the fact you disagree. How does that sound?

A look between them said everything even before they spoke. "Okay." And they shook hand and leaf together.

\- I still think dark chocolate is better tho, the ghost said with a smirk.

\- Argh Chara stop!

They all laughed at his reaction. Eventually, they got back to the upper half of the room and moved to the next one.

* * *

Ok I'll end it there cause I want Blooky's fight to be a chapter of it's own, gonna make him learn a few tricks to ghost lady over there. I hope I managed to make someone laugh. If yes, then I fulfilled my life. Now I have to go and plan some things for the future, bye-bye!


	10. Chapter 9 - Ghost lesson 101

Let's meet our favorite ghosty DJ!

* * *

The group pondered for a bit why there was a table for the piece of cheese. They found out it was stuck on the table and while Clovis was still reading the book of Zaryl, Frisk was playing with the mouse that finally decided to get out. Asriel eventually gave the mouse a bit of the cheese, on which she munched happily. Chara was in her corner of the room, lost in her thoughts. She didn't noticed Frisk leaving the others to come at her side. Crouching on her knees, the young wizard spoke softly.

\- Chara? I know it must feel awkward to communicate with your brother after so long that you don't know where to start of. If I could see my mother again, I would have so much to tell I'd surely fumble every words haha… At least you had the chance to be reunited with him, she lifted her head to look at the flower now looking over her dad's shoulder and asking him something he saw on the page. I know that our race is not the most kind but don't you think, the ghost turned her head to see her friend looking in her eyes, that both humans and monsters deserves a second chance together? Like in old times? Hah… I'd like to think that's why we, the magicians, exist. To help everyone and make this dark place a bit brighter, and better.

\- Frisk, Chara held the human hands in her own, looking severly at her, there may be a "second chance", like you say but don't think this will go all perfect. You know how our kind can be when they don't understand something. They fear it and they'll try to destroy it. If you want to free monsterkind, *sigh*, peace won't come without a bloodshed and we both know it. Dad already possess a Soul so we'd need to be at least six humans to help breaking the barrier. And that's saying none of us die on the way to the capital. Without more help, it's suicide. Chara looked back at the prince with a sad look in her eyes, and I don't want to leave him again. "But, she thought, I'll still have to go if we want rescue Gaster. Without me, the plan will never work and the other alternative is not really pleasant." But if you really want to do it, then I'll come.

\- Thank you, the girl then took moment, thinking of something. But I meant to ask you about something.

\- Hu, sure. What's the matter?

\- You know back when we fought that worm thing earlier?

\- The moldbygg?

\- Yes. When Asriel and I fought too. Did you noticed that strange… shockwave that seems to emanate from the monsters?

\- Shockwave? The ghost was perplex.

\- Yes, you know with colors fading and all. I even noticed the colors drained more with your brother compared to the moldbygg.

\- Hooooooo, the princess understood what Frisk was describing, that. Well, as monsters are made of magic, they do not have traits like the majority of humans. Instead they have that strange aura thing that flow from their body. When a monster enter a battle with an opponent this aura flow out and create a "battlefield" where no one can enter or exit the fight. This particularity was rarely used during the war as many battlefields can't coexist together, they'll just destroy the others around them and a fight zone can't appear too close to another already there. The signs of a battlefield being created is that "shockwave" you mentioned earlier and a drain from the colors of the environment. The more pronounced the drain is, then the more power this means the monster has. Some are so powerful that the fight zone they make are in total black and white. The monsters capable of such thing, well, you could count them on your fingers.

\- Wow, Frisk's eye were almost sparkling with admiration, you know so much about the monsters.

\- At the same time, I lived with them for almost a decade before I had… that plan.

\- Yeah the "death by flowers and getting Souls" thing. Might've worked out for all we know. But it still failed. She said it with a tiny bit of sarcasm I her voice.

\- Are you by any chance mocking me?

\- Nooooooo…

And they both giggled madly at how silly it was. Eventually they got to the next room, the mouse on Asriel's head. "If the girls sees me like this they'll never let me live it down urgh". The path was blocked by a ghost, faking sleep better than Juliet faking death (sarcasm sorry). It was making a loud "ZZZZ" noise.

\- Great, the flower sighted another ghost. Human ghosts, monster ghosts, what next, mom's pies ghosts? By the way I hope we'll get home soon I'm starving.

\- Azz? Could you do me a favor? It was Clovis, still buried in the book.

\- Yes?

\- It seems we need magic to move the monsters type ghosts, monster magic. Our magic don't work on them.

\- Alirght? The flower wasn't sure but he still wanted to help. Okay, here goes nothing.

The monster summoned a pair of vines to grab the ghosts, but as they came in contact, the monster created a battlefield from instinct, leaving only the prince and the man outside of it.

\- Why is there so many people? Please… leave me alone… just… leave me…

\- Ok, Chara said, here comes Napstablook. This monster never had a sense of humor.

\- Ho, I can be REAL funny. Magic of grey color wavered in the air, spelling : Really not feelin up to it now. Sorry.

\- Hey, Frisk said, you look sad, is something bothering you?

\- Just… go please. The ghost started to cry and the tears were going in all directions, making it somewhat hard to dodge. Thankfully, the fight zone englobed only Frisk, Chara and Napstablook. The tears were fizzling out of existence upon reaching the border.

\- … It's alright, Frisk gave him a patient smile, knowing sadness always fades with time.

\- … heh. The ghost cried again, although it was less worse, the tears clanged to the floor, and climbed the walls to fall over Frisk and Chara. The first leaped out of the way while the other playfully twirled between them.

\- C'mon Blooky. Chara was happy. I know you can do better then that. I bet you 15 G that I won't get hit!

\- …, a infinitesimal smile lifted his lips, heh… alright then… prepare yourself… for my special attack. Normally, I'd hold back as you're gentle… but…. you asked for it. Still… I don't want to hurt your friend, a hole opened in the limit of the battlefield that Frisk stepped trough, gently bowing before the ghost, earning herself another smile from him. Heheh… but first, I want to show you something. Tears started to flow and they were going up, slowly melting together into a hat. I call it "Dapperblook" How do find it?

\- Aaaawwww, was all Frisk could say.

\- Ho wow, you look like a gentleman, Napstablook.

\- Thanks. Now, his eyes were starting to overflow with tears, still, he smiled at the princess, time for my special attack. Waves of tears flied toward her as she continued to twirl in every space she could dodge. Then came the crawling (sins. Me : Sans get out!) tears and she started to leap, twirl and jump to escape them, al the while Blooky moving in a circular motion around the room. It was like the two of them repeated a show and finally had spectators. Him playing the bad guy, her dancing in-between the projectiles, care-free of her surroundings. Finally, the onslaught stopped and Chara made a reverence to her friends and one for Blooky. He approached her and said :

\- That was beautiful… anyway, I still owe you 15 G. By the way, what's your name? You remind me of someone… but who?

\- I'm Chara, Chara Dreemurr.

\- Ho my… the princess? Everyone thought you died… so you're a ghost now?

\- It's been almost a century I was invisible *sigh* I can't turn it "off" and I don't know why. Recently I've spent to much energy and for some reasons I'm visible, even if it won't last past a week.

\- Ho well, have you tried to picture your body in your mind and imagine it appearing? That's how I control the opacity of my body.

\- Hmm now that you said it, I'll try. After two minutes of concentrating heavily she could go invisible and visible two time, which, by the other ghost's standard, was pretty good. It's… easier then I thought. Still requires a lot of focus.

\- If you do it often it will be easier, said Napstablook, it's like training your brain instead of a muscle.

\- I guess you're right. Hey, maybe we could see each others again sometime.

\- That'd be great, he turned to Frisk and co. talking of nothing and everything, if you get out of the ruins, my house is somewhere in Waterfall. After the ruins are snowdin's forest and town, it's cold. And for you, Chara, he dropped the promised 15 G in her hand. Farewell. And he faded away.

\- Wow, Clovis stated, this ghost has some class! I like his manners. A real gentleman, Asriel, take notes.

\- Hahaha… thanks but no thanks. …!? Wait, were is Grey?!

\- Grey? The human was perplex, who is Grey?

\- The mouse from the previous room. She was perched on my head but now I don't see her!

\- It's okay, Frisk approached them, she hid in one of my pockets when I got out of the fight zone. Poor thing was scared to death.

\- Thank you Frisk. Can you keep her in your pocket? As you can see she can only go on my head and she's not safe on it. At least a pocket, if not providing much protection, will warm her enough.

\- Okay, she put Grey back in her pocket, from where she peeked out her small head. Do we go now?

\- Okay! Everyone said.

Subject being now on how Chara handled the situation, they resumed their travel trough the ruins.

* * *

Oof… ho wow. I'm mentally and physically depleted. It's 23:12, I have to get up in six or five hours and I'm writing this. AND I STILL DIDN'T CORRECT! Urgh. And Word being a b*tch to me all along the writing of this. I think, in all honesty, this chapter was the worse of all to write. I started all pumped up and ready to make something cool, now I'm half depressed and I don't wanna have to post this at school plus I have 4 pages worth of words to correct, help… at least you'll have the corrected version, you lucky people.


	11. Chapter 10 - Rise and fail

Ok I hope Word will behave this time. Before starting I have some important things to say. First, I finally moved my lazy butt and decided to do a cover. It's been an idea for some time and now, I got some good ideas of what will be on the cover. I wanted to post it with the chapter, but sadly I lack some… important skills needed to finish the drawing. Another problem for said cover is that I'm passing a week with my dad then the next with my mom (and it goes on and on and on) and I can't bring the pages for the cover since my bag's too small, that would either fold or crumple said pages and I would have to start again. Also the two next chapters will be the last for the ruins, so chapter 13 will be the entrance of Snowdin's forest. Hope you'll like the ideas I had that will change the ending. I'm saying it right now so nobody in chapter 12 will be like "WTF?! This is not what's supposed to happen!" There will be no Toriel fight. Sorry for those (even if there isn't THAT many people reading the story, but whatever) that expected a boss fight. However, if there was a fight, I couldn't do a CERTAIN thing I want to introduce to the story. Did any of you noticed something from the game was missing? First to find it will have a cookie (I'm not serious for the cookie but you can say what's missing). Anyway I'm doing these in a row so I suspect almost nobody will search what's missing. Ok ok ok I'm shutting my mouth let's go.

* * *

The group used a bit of money to buy a donut each. Even if the sign said "made of spiders", it was in fact not what they expected. No "crunch" sound, just the smoothness of the sweet pastry nearly melting down in their mouth (crap now I want one lol). In the room of the four froggits, they talked to each.

\- The sign say, ribbit, that this is the, ribbit ribbit, "f4" room. But why f4? Does, ribbit, does it means four froggits? We're only three, ribbit. The first one said.

\- Ribbit, I searched the ceiling, ribbit, but I found nothing, ribbit. The second said.

\- The fourth one, ribbit, isn't on the wall, ribbit, either, said the third one.

\- Hey, Grey found something! Frisk was near the mouse, looking at a hole in the wall. The others, froggits included, came closer and realised that the "f4" really meant four froggits as a minuscule froggit was there, in the hole. It was waving it's little arms at them and they all said "Hi!" to it, which made it really happy. Frisk said, well, you were right, not ON the wall.

As they got to the next room, Chara asked Clovis if she could look at the book he had in his hands. She first looked at the cover, with a pentagram pointed upward, each of the five lines switching from black to white at the middle while the star itself was in the middle of an half-white half-black circle. Near the border, on either sides of the red cover, was a golden line following the rectangular form of the book. As she opened it, mores pages than the book should be able to conceal flipped themselves under her eyes. "Surely a magic book designed to never miss space to write", thought the princess. Just as she started to read an interesting text on plants, she heard her friends' screams.

\- HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaa…..

Then, sounds of a hard landing came to the ghost, followed by the group's replies.

\- Oooooowwww I think the bone is dislodged again, said Clovis.

\- Frisk screamed, MY BUTT!

\- Lucky I've got vines, Asriel mumbled.

She first got to the man, who barely kept the wound from reopening. At his side was Napstablook, looking worriedly at him and using fresh, cold tears to numb the pain.

\- Hooooo… are you okay? That… looks bad. Should I… go find Miss Toriel? He asked, sad as he saw one of his new friends injured. Luckily, Chara took control of the situation.

\- It's okay Napstablook, I can take care of his wounds. Could you just keep the water cold?

\- Okay… What are you doing?

\- I'm using my powers to grow the plants needed for an herbal paste I used yesterday. It helped against infection and stopped the blood loss, she quickly explained.

In her hole, Frisk found the switch and flipped it, at the same time she heard the conversation of the two ghosts. "Phew, at least dad's not kicking the bucket today." Her butt was in pain, but it was just a few bruises. She made sure that the mouse was still with her before going back up, shortly followed by her dad and the two ghosts.

In his hole, Asriel found the ribbon. "Ho! Well, maybe I could return it to the person it belongs to." He summoned his inventory and placed the ribbon in it, then closed the rift in space. There was an unholy amount of monster candies in there. Maybe they could be useful sometime in the future. "In the meantime, let's hope mom doesn't get the idea to check my inventory or else I'm good for the scolding of the year." He ducked underground to reappear in the upper half of the room. He just saw Frisk near Clovis, who held his shoulder with magic. For now, HE was the one getting the scolding.

\- DO YOU KNOW WHAT COULD'VE HAPPENED IF NAPSTABLOOK WASN'T THERE?! YOUR INJURIES WOULD BE MANY TIMES WORSE AND WE WOULD MAYBE EVEN HAVE TO DRAG YOU THE WHOLE WAY! The flower could hear the army of exclamation points in her speech. Chara quickly made her calm down when she said that the paste should be good until they reach Toriel's house.

\- Also, the girl turned to Clovis, maybe you should keep the book if I have to make you something every five minutes. "Aaaaaannnnnnd she's going back with the sarcasm", thought the monster.

Finally, they got back on track and followed the path, which, in this case, was a puzzle of four identic rooms rotate by 90 degree (if someone know how to do the little symbol please tell me). Skipping the turn they talked to the froggit who said Toriel was seen with grocery bags. Curious, they got to the next room, which opened on the old capital of the kingdom. Near the door, they found the toy knife. Asriel stored it in his inventory. After what happened till now, the two humans were not even asking how, the older not noticing the past having dried up and going away in like it was some crust. Finally, they stopped in front of the dead tree, where Toriel saw them.

\- Ho sorry, I was going to contact you, but I fo… She noticed Chara, floating with Asriel at her side on the ground. After the moment of shock passed, the princess and the ex-queen threw themselves in the arms of the other, tears of joy running down their faces while Asriel got next to them and joined the hug. Words weren't needed at this point. Shortly after, the monster showed them their room, she had to finish the one with the sign in haste so there was only to rudimentary mattress on the floor, while the siblings got back to their old room. Night was coming anyway. Everyone quickly fell in a dreamless sleep. Except for Frisk, who's night wouldn't be as quiet as she expected.

* * *

Forgot to say that since I'm writing all of these three chapters in a row you'll just get them all the same day. And because I'm writing them one after the other, I won't have much to say, it'll be just text. So enjoy the time left in the ruins, cause after the big door things might get crazy on the way to Snowdin's town. Also I warn you already, next chapter's ending is a bit… cheesy… I could even say clumsy.


	12. Chapter 11 - Ho hi there MrGoop!

" **Frisk"**

She barely opened her eyes.

" **Frisk"**

Wait… she heard that voice before!

Her eyes snapped open to look, once again, at this gradient, from a black ground to a pale grey sky.

"Again? She whispered to herself, but where is this place?"

" **Welcome to the Void."**

"What? She turned around, and saw the skeleton from before, she thought "Great, Mr Goop is back on track". W-what did you said?"

" **I said.**.., his speech became crystal clear, Welcome to the Void. The place where all and nothing exist at the same time. Or, if you prefer, a place between worlds and across dimensions. Welcome… to the very core of reality."

Now was her chance. She could ask him anything. Instead, she opted for sarcasm.

"Okay, nice to see I'm lost in the time-space continuum while I sleep with a skeleton apparently melting in my dreams. Sorry, I'm being sarcastic. What's your name?"

The monster just laugh a bit before saying "I am the former royal scientist, Dr. Wingdings Gaster, but many of my fellow partners called me either W.D. Gaster or just G, for my friends. You can use the later, I won't take offence of it."

"Well, "G", why are you contacting me in my dreams? You said something about saving "them" last time. She remembered a bit more and added, you also said that only I can do it. I bet it has something to do with monsterkind and breaking the barrier, is it not?"

"You're a smart one, I see. The skeleton liked her already, she acted just like him when he started to work in science. So, as far as I can tell, I'm trapped here, in the Void. At first, I gained unimaginable knowledge, but there was a price for being here. Lately, my magic started to dwindle a bit each day. As a monster, I'm almost completely made of magic, so that means one day, his face turned dark with worry and fear, *sigh*… I'll turn into dust. Now, time is running short and I feel that you, out of everyone, would be the more apt to help me."

Frisk took a moment to register all the information thrown at her. After a minute or two, she looked back at the former scientist. "All right, tell me how I could help you. Then I'll judge if it's possible or not. I already told my father about last time we crossed each other. So maybe he'll be able to help."

Gaster was thrilled to see her ready to help. "Okay, listen, when I was still part of reality, I had two sons, Sans and Papyrus. Sans is the older of the two and helped me a lot in my work. Now, don't ready yourself for two old skeleton monsters. In fact, in the real world, I'd be only 45. Sans is currently 21 and Papyrus is around… 16 I guess? It's been so long that I lost count of the years. But I always found a point in time to know when we were. So technically, they are still young. Now, you must find Sans, he helped me with my work on the Void. After a certain… accident, we discovered a rift in time and space, leading to this place we are in at the moment. Some kind of energy was flowing trough the rift. It is much more powerful than any kind of energy discovered this far. So I tried to use this energy to recreate human Souls. If it worked, we could break the barrier and return in peace! Alas, the experiment was a fail, and the uncontrollable magic reaction created a shockwave that sent me right into the rift. Unfortunately for me, the shock caused it to close, making me a prisoner of the Void. Still, using my magic, I discovered that my son made a machine with a similar purpose to the one that first opened the portal, but the magic of a monster alone wasn't strong enough. In the end, he gave up. But with your magic and his, you should be able to finish the process and bring me back! Or else, I don't know what could. There it is, you heard the plan and you now know how I ended here. Gaster looked shocked, as if he just realized something. Now go, I can't stay in contact with you much longer. So this is goodbye, for now"

She barely had time to understand what she heard before she sensed a feeling of being pulled out from sleep. She only heard Gaster's last words before it all went to black.

"Farewell, Frisk. See you in an other time."

The first thing she recognized when she woke up was an acrid smell. She spent a few moments piecing where she was before she realized what this smell meant.

There was a fire!


	13. Chapter 12 - THE PIE IS ON FIRE!

\- FRISK!

Her dad was beside her and helped her to get up. She wanted to tell him about Gaster, but with the fire going on, there was no time for it. Chara was quickly there, Asriel on her heels.

\- Quick, the prince said, it comes from the kitchen!

They all ran to the kitchen where Toriel was trying to extinguish the fire with her magic. Only, this time it wasn't a magic fire. Frisk was prompt to open the faucet and to scoop up a good amount of it with the use of dark blue magic. She then just let the mass of water fall on whatever was burning. A thick smoke lift up from the burning thing, clouding their visions. When it finally dissipated, everyone was surprised to see a pie of a tremendous size sitting there on the counter, the top being black with burned crust. The former queen made a quick move to chase the rest of the smoke out. She then dumped the pie in the trash can. The monster gave them an apologetic look before answering the silent question, being : what the hell happened here?!

\- I'm so sorry. Chara, my child, I tried to do one of your favorite pie, the one with chocolate. Unfortunately, I had to replace the chocolate with cocoa, but I was neglectful and it heated up to point of catching on fire. Will you forgive me, my dear?

\- It's okay, mom, Chara gave her a little hug, we can always do the cinnamon-butterscotch one. You always made this one perfectly. But maybe you should sleep too. She produced a small plant that emitted some light. Judging by the light, it's almost four in the morning. Clovis got closer, amazed by the strange flower.

\- Wow, Chara, I've never seen such plant in my life, what is it? Asriel stepped in the discussion.

\- This is an amethyst flame. This flower gather luminous energy during daytime and then bloom upon night, emitting back what energy she absorbed in the form of a bright light resembling a small flame, hence the name.

\- It's beautiful, said Frisk. But Chara's right, we should all try to finish the night and to get back the time we've spent awake here.

Everybody agreed, Toriel cleaned up the kitchen and got in her room, the rest of the night passed by without anything disturbing their sleep.

[A few hours later]

Frisk woke up first, with the intent to speak about her dream to Clovis. However, she barely had the time to get up that Chara barged in with a piece of cake, like the one Asriel used to… wake her up the day before. Asriel had one too, that he dropped in font of Clovis. The princess handed Frisk her plate before talking.

\- Good morning, she was beaming, me, mom and Azz made this for you two, as a welcome gift as well as breakfast. You surely are starving.

\- Chara, Frisk was clearly mocking her by the tone she used, don't tell me it's the recycled pieces of the failed pie from tonight.

\- *Choking on his part* PRRRRFFFF Ack! Frisk, y-you can't be s-serious! Clovis was laughing and everybody laughed too.

\- Don't worry, said the ghost, it's the cinnamon-butterscotch one. It's one of the best! Toriel then came in and sat down on the man's bed, the room became silent.

\- My dear, she said with concern in her voice, my daughter told me about your injuries, especially about your shoulder. May I take a look? I only want to help you.

\- O-ok, watch out, it's sensible. The man grimaced a bit when her paw-like hands came in contact with it. A green light, much more powerful than Frisk's, started to overflow from said hands, literally going _in_ the wound. In front of their eyes, the two magicians saw the wound close itself with the sickening sound of the bone abruptly getting back in place, making Clovis tremble under the sensation. Finally, it stopped, and the green light faded away. He just looked at the monster's face before muttering a shy : thank you. She nodded. Before leaving the room, she turned to them.

\- Frisk, Clovis… Chara and Asriel told me about everything that happened and, honestly, I believe that you could survive out there, so I won't hold you down in the ruins. You are free to leave whenever you want. Chara, you can't get hurt in your present state, so you can go with them if you wish so.

\- Mom, Asriel had a pleading note in his voice, I want to go too!

\- Her face hardened, no. You won't go outside! I already lost you and I can't let this happen again. Your condition is not like your sister's. You could die again! And just because you'd travel with them! She softened a bit, but her voice was still hard and sharp, like cold water going down their back. Now, go in your room and please stay in it till it's over.

\- No.

\- Young man, her voice seemed to hold an hidden menace, you are going to be grounded if you don't behave, this, instant. Go. In. Your. Room. Surprisingly, the prince stood his ground and looked up at the ex-queen.

\- No! I want to go and I'll go! Tears found their way to his eyes as he continued, I've been held away from Chara by this stupid fate and now YOU, out of everyone, want me to let her GO?! I won't accept it! If you have to "punish" me, so be it! But I won't give up, and I'll go, no matter what! Toriel was clearly furious to see how stubborn he was and the room's temperature passed from comfortable to burning hot! However, she soon relaxed and everyone let out a sigh they weren't aware they held in their chest as the room got comfortable once again.

\- *Sigh* Alright, I won't hold you here, but I insist that you bring something against the cold of Snowdin, same for all of you.

\- Hu… Chara was lifting her hand, sorry mom but I don't feel temperature since I'm almost an ethereal being.

\- She rolled her eyes. Okay, everyone except you, my child. She turned to the rest of the group. I'll show you the exit. Com to the stairs when you are ready.

They started to get their things, all thoughts about Gaster gone from Frisk's mind.

[5 minutes later]

\- Alright, everyone's bags were packed and it was decided that Chara would have the food in her bag, Asriel's inventory was full anyway. Toriel looked back at them, I see you all put clothes for the cold, now let's go. In fact, it was the same clothes but thicker. Asriel, as a flower, could only put a scarf (how does he keep it while traveling? magic…)

They walked downstairs and before them was a long, really long corridor. In the middle of it, Toriel turned her head to the side, still walking.

\- Are you sure you want to go? You could… die out here and there's nothing I could do.

\- But, it was Frisk who talked, you could come with us, don't you?

\- I'm afraid I can't, my child. Someone has to take care of this place.

\- Ho… a-alright then…

They kept walking, until they came to a turn. Just after it was a door in front of which the monster stopped to turn toward them.

\- Behind these doors is the rest of the underground. I have to be sure every of you want to go there. Do you understand? If you want to back away now, I won't blame you, but it's your last chance to do it.

\- Toriel, Frisk came toward her, we all want to go outside. And don't think you failed to protect anyone, you were and still are a wonderful person. It's not hard to like you at all.

\- Heh… okay, before you go, she placed an old phone in the human's hands, use this to call me once you reach Snowdin's town. Promise me you'll call the moment you'll be in town, will you?

\- I promise, the girl said, her eyes gleaming. She only knew the kind monster for a few hours yet it felt like years. "Yes, it's not hard to love you, Toriel" was her last though before she got back in the group.

\- Now, I'll go upstairs, said the queen, Chara, Asriel, you can come here whenever you want. As for you, she turned to the wizards, be careful at all cost, good luck in your travel.

She left them here, it took all her willpower to not burst in tears as she almost ran to the stairs. She had her children again, and they were leaving her again. She collapsed in front of the mirror, the "thunk!" of her horns poking the glass startling her before she calmed down, but she felt heartbroken.

Unaware of this, the group stood in front of the door, Frisk feeling something she never felt before. A burning sensation making it's way from her Soul to her body. She was with her dad, and her friends were at her sides. The feeling increased in intensity. She was _determined_ to make it trough this journey. Everyone was surprised to see her Soul come out of her body, irradiating a strong glow, the color of a ruby, before a great pulse came from it. A strange red light, flowing in every directions before turning to a soft yellow glow and the light faded away. Frisk's Soul reintegrated her body, calmer with the sudden feeling now gone. She just heard a strange sound of static resonating in her head before she heard clearly again. Chara and Asriel were staring at her in awe, while her father had the most perplex face she ever saw. Only one question made it past trough her lips.

\- What was that?

The siblings shared a look, and decided to come clean with it.

\- That, the flower began, was a Save. Puzzled look from her. *Sigh* Chara, can you?

\- The ghost took inhaled before dropping the info bomb. Save is an ability specific to us, humans with the Determination trait. Whenever our trait activate, under certain circumstances, this thing happens. A Save, as it says, let you take a precise moment in time and space and link it to your Soul. If you were to die, the Load would be automatic. A Load is when you die and come back to your last Save point. To the others, everything will be normal, only the one who Saved would remember what happened before they died.

\- However, the prince said, this is a double-edged sword, in many ways. If you Save after the death of someone, the Load will obviously not bring them back. And suicide can't trigger a Load. It's not clear why, but it seems that as long as one got the desire to live, they can Save and Load, as long as they possess enough Determination or the equivalent trait.

\- Clovis talked. So that's why you two…

\- Died, yes. My death was needed in order to apply the plan, and when we were wounded to death, I just wanted to let go, yet I returned as a ghost.

\- Now, the monster returned to explanations, every being with this power remember what happens when a Load occur, so if you die, me and my sister will be able to remember. However, only one being can have this particularity at the same time. I can't Save and neither can Chara as long as you can do it. Iiiiiiinnnn fact, the flower seemed unsure, under exceptional circumstance more than one being can Save and Load, as well as many more things that you'll discover in place and time.

\- I see, so as long as I have this ability, you two can't use it and avoid us more trouble… so long story short I'm in charge for everyone's lives here… shit.

\- Haha… that's what I thought the first I Loaded… after a painful death.

\- You mean the death by vulkin hug? That one was memorable! The flower laughed at it, but Frisk and Clovis, not knowing what a vulkin is, had no idea what Asriel was talking about.

\- Alright you had your fun bro but can we move!?

The sudden question made everyone think one more second about what happened, then they pushed open the door and walked down the hallway leading to their next adventure.

The story was barely starting!

* * *

Ho my… these chapters were a pain to do, but here you have it! What will happen in Snowdin's area? Heheheh… you'll discover it soon enough. On that note, I'm off, bye!


	14. Chapter 13 - Too cold is TOO cold!

No excuse for not working on this one as this much of the plot (well… it's major events that are planned) is prepared… whatever I don't care so let's go ¯\\_(^_^)_/¯

* * *

The door closed on group, isolating the ruins again from the rest of the underground. Shivering from the intense cold, the humans stepped out of the shadows to find out… a _drastic_ change of temperature. Whatever was making the light itself was really bright. The difference between the ruins and here were at least 15 C! They felt like they were freezing the instant they stepped out.

\- D-d-dad, Frisk shivered while looking around, I f-found somet-thing in that b-bush (warning : they will talk like this most of Snowdin's area, so just read it normally if it annoys you).

Clovis came nearer and observed that the camera, as it was the thing his daughter found, looked pretty high-tech. Not something to build in such conditions. Probably made in a more clement place and then imported here.

\- Hey, Chara, who made herself almost invisible, shouted from afar, are you two gonna freeze like a bicycle or are you coming? As them came to her she asked : by the way, can I borrow your book again, Clovis?

\- S-sure, he answered. Just d-don't drop it in t-the snow. It is u-unique.

\- It will be fine, she rolled her eyes and shook her head, as if to say "you're not trusting me on that one, right?".

They resumed their walk, Chara idly flipping the pages and cursing the idiots who never thought of writing specific sections for magic, plants, weather and who knows what. Asriel was talking to Frisk and tried to cheer her up when they slipped on Amelia's subject. He even threw Grey at her, eliciting a "squeak!" and a scream from them. Finally it worked good enough and they dropped their current subject, while Chara was doing an hard-core version of rapidly flipping pages of the book, whispering things like : no, nope, nuhu, no sire!, are you serious?, how to cut a throat? eeewww that shouldn't be in that book!, nadda, not here. Everyone was so absorbed by what they were doing that the sound of crunching snow kept unheard.

When they passed the stick, they heard it crack and turned, seeing it broken like something heavy stepped on it. Until Asriel mentioned, in an uneasy tone, the weird blue marks left by the use of magic, seemingly this was a joke, nothing more.

As they arrived at the gate, they froze in their tracks as the crunching sound came back. Chara panicked and went invisible… she felt in the gap. Clovis readied himself in case they had to fight and Asriel, a bit trapped by his scarf, was having a hard time turning around properly. Finally, a low voice came from behind Frisk, muffled, yet with… a note of something, as if the being was taking the situation lightly.

\- Humans, don't you know how to greet a new pal? Turn around, and shake my hand.

Frisk was the first to turn around, and a farting sound echoed in the forest, making Chara say "eeewww" under her breath. Finally, the shadow they were seeing wavered, letting them see a young skeleton. He was laughing as Frisk smiled widely, chuckling.

\- Hehe… the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick, it's ALWAYS funny, wink from him. Anyway, I'm s-… he looked behind Frisk –you? The shock passed and his grin came back, but not before the flower saw his look, clearly meaning "you got some explanations to give me". Whatever, as I was saying, I'm sans. sans the skeleton.

"SHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT" Asriel quickly ducked underground, not to be seen for the rest of the chapter (I know I'm breaking the fourth wall a "little bit" here but it's my story plus it's narration). The group was intrigued as, first, why the flower fled, and two, about the monster, who seemed amused at the situation.

\- im actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now. but… y'know… i don't really care about capturing anybody.

\- W-well, the girl said, ca-capturing us l-like this out of no-nowhere would f-feel a bit _c-cold-hearted_.

\- well, he replied, i hope your not turning into a bicycle or else you'll be _two-tired_ to go on.

The three of them, Chara was searching her brother, laughed at the jokes.

\- Aren't y-you going to z-zip up your jacket, the man asked, we're f-freezing.

\- yay, but, he grinned, ya know bud, the cold just go-

\- R-right trough you? Frisk joked.

\- ho, my god. He smiled and burst into laughter, as did the duo.

After some time they managed to get somewhat serious again.

\- now, as i said, Sans recalled, i don't care 'bout capturing anybody. now, my brother… papyrus… he's a human-hunting FANATIC.

\- Hu-human-hunt-ting?, Clovis stuttered.

\- Hey, Sans got serious for a moment, he's not dangerous, so don't worry. He couldn't harm a fly. He quickly came back to his joking self, actually, i think it's him over there.

\- I-if you s-say so, she muttered.

\- Sans straightened like he had a shock, i have an idea, he started to push them a bit. go through that gate thingy. yeah, go right through. my bro made the bars too wide to stop anyone. To himself : this will be fun.

With that, he pushed them definitively on the other side. There they could see a station, presumably Sans'. There was also a weird lamp.

\- W-what do we d-do now? The man was concerned.

\- you, you go in the trees, your clothes should hide you properly. and kid, i think if you faced the lamp you could hide behind it.

They did as ordered and no later than they hid, a tall skeleton entered the area, with some sort of self made armor and a red scarf.

[skipping the scene since it's canon and too long] (try to write Sans' speech like in game, I dare you so much)

Papyrus came back one last time.

\- HEH.

And off he was.

\- ok, you two can come out now.

To be honest, they really liked this moment and were still having an amused smile on their face. After having to stand still, they got conditioned to the cold air.

\- Wow, Frisk said, you're somet-thing. I wouldn't want to engage myself in a pun competition against y-you.

\- nope. you wouldn't want to, kiddo.

\- P-please, call me Frisk.

\- And I a-am C-clovis. I-I am freezing, c-could we go on?

\- Nice to met'cha, freezin.

\- Her eyes narrowed as she remembered one of her favourite joke … d-don't you dare pull up THAT joke Sans the skeleton, she felt her cheeks go a bit red but whether it was from the cold or not, she didn't knew, I'm way b-better at the name pun.

\- welp, he sighed, in this case, im boned.

\- Ho you, Clovis tackled him lightly. Anyw-way, I wonder, how old are y-you?

\- huuu…, he looked to the side, i turned 21 last month. my bro's barely 16 and d… his sentence died on his lips (I know skeletons do not possess lips!). Hmmm, my tongue forked, sorry.

\- Okay, he looked right into Sans' eye sockets, as if searching answers, I t-think, turning to Frisk, that we should go.

\- alrighty then, the short monster said, see ya later.

With that, he started to walk the wrong way. They walked on to the next area. Seemingly, the royal siblings would not come back before some time. The magicians felt this journey through the underground was taking a funny turn. Only one thing could ruin their day, and it was silently following them, glint of yellow hidden by forest.

* * *

Ok so Sans' whole speech is covered in errors because of how he talk and my pc's going overkill with it. What did I do to the universe to get this? Also, I'll let you people guess who is that new shadowy character ;)


	15. Chapter 14 - Woah, that's sharp

You can't know how much I waited for the right moment to show you this new character! It's simple, I'm dying from the excitement YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES! ! ! ! ! *clearing throat* Sorry, I'm sorry, okay I'll shut up. Before we start, I want to say good job to Alia Sooan, for guessing correctly who we got stalking the duo. Also, this chapter may be heavy on PoV switch. Here we go. Ps : I don't know why I delayed this one for sooooooooooo long, really don't know…

* * *

[From the cover of the trees]

\- God damn it, cursed the woman, I can't let them die.

[Back to the duo]

As they entered the area, they saw a chest and a panel right beside it. After guessing it would be great to not lose their items, Frisk stored away some monster candy the flower gave her before their encounter with Sans. Clovis, on his side, had nothing to store, beside a little red rose, a gift from his wife, imbued with magic so it would never wilt. Letting out a deep breath, he stored the rose away in the chest, and they closed it. Not bothering the other way up, since all they could see from there was a river, they pushed forward.

[On Asriel's side]

\- Yum! What flavor is this one?

\- Let me check the menu. … It's butterscotch with a vanilla swirl.

\- It's really good!

\- Glad you like it!

[To the next skeleton encounter]

They stopped when they saw the brothers standing in front of them.

\- SO, AS I WAS SAYING ABOUT UNDYNE… Papyrus shut up and turned when Frisk shouted a "Hi".

Then the two skeletons started to glance at them, then at the other, but each time they could not get in sync. As a result, when Sans stared at them, Papyrus looked at him, and when the tall skeleton looked at them, the short one turned to him. At the end, they did it so fast they started to spin on place, getting giggles and barely hold snickers from the wizards.

When they stopped spinning, they turned so the humans could not hear them.

\- SANS! ! HO MY GOD! ! IS THAT… A HUMAN! ? ! ? ! ? ? ! ? !

They turned around. Then, the mall one spoke.

\- huuu…, he looked at something behind them, actually, i think that's a rock.

He winked at the duo, and the girl winked at him.

Papyrus made a weird face and simply said "HO".

That's when his brother turned to the magicians and added.

\- hey, what's that in front of the rock?

For the first time, the other seemed to notice the two humans.

\- HO MY GOD! ! !

He leaned toward Sans and asked a question loudly, even if he tried to whisper.

\- (ARE… ARE THESE HUMANS)

\- (yes), the older one whispered back.

That tiny answer sent Papyrus on a hype rant.

\- HO MY GOD! ! ! SANS! I FINALLY DID IT! ! UNDYNE WILL… I'M GONNA… I'LL BE SO… POPULAR! ! ! POPULAR! ! ! POPULAR! ! ! He took on a serious face. … "HAHEM" HUMANS! YOU SHALL NOT PASS THIS AREA! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL STOP YOU! ! ! I WILL THEN CAPTURE YOU! YOU WILL BE DELIVERED TO THE CAPITAL! THEN... THEN! ! ! He looked perplex. I'M NOT SURE WHAT'S NEXT. He quickly recomposed his grave face. IN ANY CASE! CONTINUE… ONLY IF YOU DARE! ! ! And off he was, again. NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH! ! !

The moment following was… feeling plain weird. All of a sudden, Sans turned toward them.

\- well, that went well.

\- Better the exp-pected, added Clovis.

\- don't sweat it, buds.

\- Sweat what, Frisk asked herself.

\- i'll keep an eyesocket out for ya.

This time, he did walked the correct way.

\- I'm still wondering how he got there before us… Pondered the man.

The question had no time to hang in the air.

\- The short one has the power to teleport, responded a blank voice, lacking all signs of any emotion.

Before the duo could look around, a group of branch were moved away to reveal a woman, who, strangely enough, looked almost like an amazon of Greek mythology. Black hairs that would normally reach barely below her shoulders were it not for an elastic keeping them in a ponytail. A little taller then Clovis, she wore a brown jacket of leather, like Clovis, with the difference of being doubled with a warmer layer and being equipped with a feathered hood, dangling limply as she walked without a sound. Hard steel eyes, black flat boots and tattered, green, but somewhat warm leggings, finished the picture, taken account the fact she looked to be in her mid-forty.

"My ex only has one Soul up 'till now". The sentence kept replaying in Frisk's head, while Clovis seemed transfixed by the stern, yet enigmatic woman. The new character introduced herself.

\- Greetings, she declared with a small reverence, my name is Amanda Greyhood. However, you may call me Miss., or simply Amanda. Now, she turned her back to them, if you want your chances of survival to get up, follow me, she put the hood of her jacket on, and stay silent… She stood there, however, as if waiting for something. I would also appreciate the fact you would stop scanning my Soul, young one, she sternly said while turning to Frisk, some kind of calm anger in her eyes.

"But I already know all I have to, thought the smart girl, hmm okay so she is"-

\- Before you say it for me, I am 45, and was born with the yellow trait, which seems to be tied to Justice. Now, she repeated, yellow arrow and golden bow forming in her hands, if you will not stay calm, I cannot promise it will be a monster that will be threatened by this.

\- Woah, that's sharp. Frisk's dad spoke for the first time in the few minutes since the women introduced herself. Like, maybe a bit _too_ sharp…

She stared him down like he could be anything but a human, it was… unsettling, to say the least. She looked like she felt no disgust, no pity, but no happiness or even nostalgia from seeing the surface.

Without any warning, the ceiling became black and the visibility dropped almost to zero. Only the glowing arrow and bow were visible enough for the wizards to see.

\- Hmph! Then shut up, and let us be on our way, there is a storm coming, almost every night this part of the Underground is stuck in total blizzard. Let's waste no time, I know a safe place, and tomorrow, after we reach the town, we'll part our way, was I clear enough?

Amanda did not waited for their answer before turning, weapons in hands, and leaving them there as the wind started to rise. Frisk and her father hurriedly walked toward her, trying to be as silent as they could.

[On nice cream guy's side]

\- Hmmm, seems like a blizzard's coming tonight. *Sigh* it's gonna be a really super dark night tonight. You should go to the town, I can handle myself, little guy.

\- *Slurping with three nice creams in his mouth mouth* Hooo, thou bad, you're really nife. Whafever, gan I hafe some nice freams for ny friends? They should ge on the hay for the town too, an' they might miss you if you go fo ano'her sfot. The flower just couldn't talk properly with its mouth this full of frozen treats.

\- Actually, I was thinking about finding some calm place in Waterfall, since it's connected to Snowdin, the temperature there is still cold enough for nice creams, but hot enough so it's always perfect for one.

Asriel gulped down the rest of the nice creams before talking again.

\- Hehe… sounds like a wonderful idea…

[At Grillby's]

\- have you seen that lights off, grillbz?!

\- … … … … …

\- what? yeah it's like that almost every night, but a blizzard coming this fast? last time must've been, five years ago i think?

\- … … … Sans… … You know how your brother react when you get home after a blizzard has started… … … do you?

\- ghu! … huuu, oops. you're right, i should go before the cold comes, *… Sans… no*, i don't wanna catch up with it after all… ok that one could've went better… i'm going, g'night, bud.

Night was coming insanely fast this time, and the blizzard too, surely some monsters would have to get the snow off their house, but the lively village would soon get its old cheerful routine back tomorrow's morning, there was no doubt about it.

[Back to the humans]

She opened the door of a little cabin, just on the other side of the river, a makeshift bridge of wooden planks having been used to go the other side, then hid in the nearby trees. A single bed was inside and a little handmade stove created from many pieces of metallic things, was heating some hot cocoa. A round tapestry decorated the floor. No windows, except for the door and in front of the stove. Some canned food stored on three shelves arranged vertically made to accommodate the furthermost left corner from the door, where a little fireplace of bricks burned brightly. The stove from earlier was just put so the shelves were in sandwich between it and the fireplace. A two place, pale green used sofa sat at the opposite wall, the one comporting the entrance. The bed was right in front of the door. It was a cozy little place.

\- Here we are, my little home in this cold place. For the first time, the woman seemed to express… pride? But it was gone the moment after. Make yourself at home, I have two pillows, and the carpet at the center should be comfy enough, it's like walking on velvet, the other one can take the seat. There's two sets of blankets in the sofa, I used them to make it more comfortable, but you can use them for the night. She walked to the stove. So, would one of you like to have some hot cocoa? Seeing the two of them raise their hands, she said, alright, just sit, it's nearly done.

\- Amanda, Clovis seemed intrigued about the nature of this place, how could you build this without the monsters noticing?

\- Well, not to say I'm not pleased to see interest about my life, but let's say, I first made the bridge, then used some trees on this side of the river, else this "house" would not have the place to exist, if you get what I mean.

\- Oh…

\- Yeah, it was long and the blizzard often knocked the foundations down, but it was worth the wait. After this, I often sneaked in the town and, while it is bad, I know, stole some pieces of scrap to build the furniture. Some metal to make the stove, spare bricks of a house for the fireplace, the couch, however… it was… in the river? I never knew why, but I found it there, one day, just, you know, she shrugged, just floating up the river toward here, monsters are weird, but who am I to judge? I just picked it up and let it dry. The windows, well, some of the river's shores posses sand beneath the thick snow, you just have to dig on a good two to three meters and then you have access to frozen sand, and with the fireplace, it was easy to make the windows.

The girl raised a hand Amanda nodded to let her know she could ask what was on her mind.

\- Hum... it's just, she blushed, I was wondering, these weapons from earlier, is it linked to the Justice trait, or are you a wizard?

\- Actually, it's both, she explained. Yes, it is because of my trait, and yes, I am gifted with magic, or "cursed", as some people like to say. I don't know why, but it seems like us, humans with a yellow Soul, are naturally good at using ranged weapons, such as a bow and arrows. Now, she replaced some stray hairs that escaped her ponytail, I was born with the power to create any kind of weapon, but due to my specialty with ranged weapons, it is easier for me to create, let's say, a shotgun then a mace. They act like an illusion. You see, if I focus on what I want, then they are real, but if I get distracted, then they just cease to exist. They are not made of magic, but instead of pure energy, which is somehow worse, since these have a greater potential to hurt someone or something then material ones.

She seemed to snap out of a dream, and looked back at the two in front of her. The mature woman narrowed her eyes, something was clearly bothering her.

\- Actually, I wonder what your powers are. If I remember, only magic beings can pass the seal non-magicians crafted after the seven creators of the barrier died. I heard there's some types of process that allows to extract magic from objects infused with it, surely that's how they could craft the second spell. So, you must definitely be wizards, just like me. Let's start with you, she pointed Clovis, what is your magic like?

Taken aback by this sudden change of subject, he took a few moments before finally answering the question.

\- Well, as I have a Soul of Integrity, I can change the center of gravity of objects and people, making them fall in any desired direction, or make them levitate, he said as he made an example by balling up his hot cocoa above the little mug, and let it fall down in it. My unique ability, is to change appearance, people or animals, I can do it. There is, however, a few rules us, metamorphs (how do I spell that?! Word won't cooperate...), need to know. Firstly, we need to know what we turn into, and posses a perfect understanding of how the body of the creature functions. For instance, let's say I'd want to transform into a lizard, but had no idea of how its internal organs worked, I'd end as a puddle of blood, gruesome, I know. Second rule is, shapeshifting is exhausting, much more for young ones, like my daughter.

As he mentioned her, Amanda turned to the young girl, who shyly sunk farther in the couch, and waited for her to say something.

\- W-well, she mumbled a bit before strengthening her voice, I have the red trait. Still, I inherited dad's magic and powers. At the same time, my m-mother, she almost chocked on the word, she had the same trait as me, which she passed to me, obviously. She had the ability to use magic the same way monsters use to in battle, and taught me to use withe, light blue, orange and green magic… before...

She sighted and looked down, all interest seemingly lost.

A slight touch of compassion made it in the shining grey irises.

\- I understand, you do not have to say everything, you told me enough. … Ho right, it was rude from me, from the start I forgot to ask your names.

Presentations were made, the cocoa, drank in silence, blankets used, and everyone went to sleep. One question remained to our main characters. Who really was Amanda? How had she ended up here? Why would she help them? At first glance, it did not looked like she really cared. Did she had a reason for acting so strangely, like an automata? Or was it just her personality?

As father and daughter fell asleep on these annoying interrogations, the women, however, would soon be tormented by her relentless past, the fatidic day were her life turned the wrong way. In the daylight, she acted as a confident person, one people can relate to without being judged, but in the shadows of the night, memories always came to haunt her, again and again.

Tonight would be no different.

* * *

Wow, I actually finished it? Who knew, surely not me...


	16. Chapter 15 - Nightmares of a rotten past

I want to warn you, this may quickly go really dark and… surely some bits may be humoristic, while others may be gross… sorry in advance, and possibly heartbreaking, alright, feels incoming. (For this chapter, and maybe future ones, italics are meant for flashbacks, is that okay?)

Ps : Memes may have slipped in the text during the making of this, what the hell is wrong with me?!

Pps : Please, don't hate me after reading this… cause Amanda is so broken, I swear…

* * *

Amanda fell asleep, too, but the nightmare, as it always did, came back to haunt her. Only, tonight, it was about much more then just the Accident.

 _A beach, the sound of waves coming to die at the kid's feet, as she giggled._

" _Amanda! Come here!"_

 _Her dad was there, finally!_

 _Her little feet running, tapping the ground before sending sand flying up everywhere behind her, the six-year-old girl happily threw herself in the protection of his arms. She lifted her head, eyes gleaming._

" _Daddy! Mama_ (mia) _said you'll be away for just one week, why did it took so long?"_

 _He responded with a few chuckles._

" _Well, you see-"_

In the dream, the vision became a blur, before focus came back, then slowly fading away to be replaced by another one, and the woman could only hear, in fact remember, those last words.

" _You and your mom are the best things that could happen to me, I love you, my little Amy"_

 _Suddenly, after closing her eyes quickly to shake the blur away, focus came back, and the young girl found herself in a village._

" _Hey, look who it is… how's it going Amanda?"_

" _Joe!"_

 _A boy, about ten, her elder by barely one year. Around a head taller then her, blue eyes, tanned skin, black hairs, like her's, and his appearance, buffed for a kid of his age, intimidated the bullies of the place. She remember how he often took her defense against these harsh little brats. At school, some of the other kids made fun of her because she was the only one with powers and such unusual eyes. Some even said she must had looked the sun for it to burn her eyes to this brilliant shade of grey, like two spheres of hard, cold metal. One kid even went to mention she probably got them busted at her birth, because she was a_ "witch" _, a_ "demon, a spawn of the devil itself" _, and how they should_ "burn her and all her wretched kind" _. The venom in these words made her cry while the culprit was harshly punished by his parents and the teacher, named Mr. Jefferson, but everyone called him Jay, because it rhymed. He and Joe were of the many people who took her defense that day. Yes, many child did not liked her, but even they agreed to say the brat went way too far._

 _After that, sometimes, when they had work to do on magic, she was the one who got all the questions from her classmates, and rapidly, even some of the bullies started to appreciate Amanda. That made the little girl think, they did had a homework about the magic of Souls, right?_

" _Hey, Amy, earth to the moon, do you receive me?"_

 _Joe was waving one hand a few centimeters away from her face, making her snap out of her reverie. She looked back at him, but the details started to blur a bit._

In her bed, the woman tossed around, getting tangled in the bedsheets. She did not wanted to let go of these happy moments.

 _She looked back at him after shaking her head, and her eyes went back with their normal acuity. She blushed slightly when she noticed her friend staring at her in the eyes, uncomfortably close. She stumbled backward before muttering a bit._

" _Hey, sorry Joe, was lost in my thought, I was thinking back about what mister Jay asked us, *sigh*, I feel this is a hard question."_

 _He looked as if he tried to remember something, and then it clicked in the boy's mind._

" _You mean the work about Soul unleashing?"_

 _Amanda sadly nodded to him. She looked in every books at home, but she found not even the slightest mention of it. Then, she saw Joe grinning widely at her. Hope filled her and she did not dare to ask the question burning on her lips._

" _Yep, he proudly exclaimed, I found some old, really old books about this thing an-"_

 _He stopped dead in his track, and the young sorceress asked him what was wrong. He looked down, grim expression on his face, before clearly expressing worry, and she knew he was worried about her. Letting out a long, long sigh, he finally answered._

" _Well…, I have to say, I'm not happy about what I learned. An unleashed Soul is pretty much like shattering it, but this only happens to…, anxiety creeped in his voice, to… urgh, only to wizards. Let me finish first. You see, they say unleashing, because when someone posses both a trait and magic, they have some kind of… how does the book said that? He shuffled through his notes. Here, it says it's like some kind of well, where a wizard possessing a trait can get extra magic and all. However, it must be done in c-… cost… retard?.. *Shuffles* Oh, resort, last resort."_

 _He saw the fear in his friend's eyes, fear of what might follow. Only, like he knew Amy, as was her short name, she would surely ask him to continue, and he was right._

" _I… I don't care, she exclaimed, shaking her head, tell me, Joe, please teeeeeeelllllll meeeeeee."_

 _The boy laughed at how silly she sounded, and her expression, it looked like a puppy asking for food._

" _Ok, ok, I'll tell ya, guess you won't let me go away with this, now that we're on the subject haha… To be frank, the rest of what I found is…, his expression turned dull, as if he was far away, how do grown-ups say that? … uh yeah, it's startling. If a wizard want to use the extra magic, they have to use it all at once, it's like, huuu, searching my words again… …, he looked frustrated to not be able to remember the words, … hmmm I think it's a word that mean boom? Whatever, it sounds like explore or something like that. If someone unleash their Soul, all the magic in it goes BOOM, and it's devastating! Their Soul crumble to pieces slowly after it. It uses both the trait and the magic, and if anything near can catch fire, then I guess it will burn. It looks like a big ball of fire, feedin of the Soul's power, and that's when it's empty that it goes boom… but it seems painful, and…"_

 _She managed to understand what he meant. She gently grabbed his arm and looked in his eyes._

" _I'll never, ever do it, Joe, I promise, never unleash magic, got it."_

 _He sighed. It was a sigh of relief._

" _Oki, let's go search your things so you can make notes, his expression lightened to a happy, excited one, I can't wait to see the others' face when they'll see only us have the correct answer, heheh."_

 _Running to her house, Joe now leading the way, everything was spinning out into the black suddenly, and as abruptly as it started, it ended a few moments later._

In the small bed, the human felt dizzy, the sensation almost waking her up. Calm and silence quickly took place again, however.

 _Now, she was at school, in the evening, where the sun is going below the horizon while the first stars can be seen. It was a normal day, under a normal sky, after a normal routine, normal class, normal questions and answers. Overall, just_ (Monika) _a normal day. Soon, she would go home, talk about her day and ask her parents about their day. Joe and her, now respectively 16 and 15, were officially together. They were discussing on a bench, under a tree slowly turning orange, as fall was coming._

" _Wow, that demonstration of your powers, even Jay was wordless! How did you do it?"_

 _Amanda blushed, some hairs blocking her view as she lowered her head shyly, before rearranging them correctly._

" _Well, I think it's about energy, you see, I can create weapons of pure energy, so I have to focus if I want them to stay solid and efficient… at least I think that's how it work."_

" _Then why just a bow and arrows? If it's any weapons?"_

 _Looking at him, she saw him making such a silly face that she laughed out loud._

" _Hahaha, sorry, it's just that you're making your funny face again. Well, it may be because of my trait. I mean, in general, us, people with the Justice trait, we are better at handling any ranged weapons, be it a bow, like I do, a gun, a slingshot, literally everything that uses ammunitions."_

" _So you mean that it'd be easier for you to create a bow, like earlier, than… a sword, let's say?"_

 _She clapped excitedly, Joe easily understood new concepts, either in magic, math, writing, everything._

" _That's exactly what I mean! You're so smart, you know?"_

" _Hehe, yes you must repeat it about five to ten times a day Amy."_

 _She looked offended, but he knew it was just her sense of humor._

" _What?! N-no! I totally don't love or praise you, we're just friends!"_

 _He decided to play along._

" _And I thought you loved me, he declared dramatically, I must believe life is cruel. I'm heartbroken, goodbye, cruel world, blargh."_

 _He put a hand on his forehead, the other on his chest, and faked the act to fall dead, laying down on the bench._

 _There was a moment of silence._

"…"

"…"

 _Which did not pass up the ten seconds mark before they both abruptly burst into laughter._

" _Hahahahahaha! You should've seen how serious you looked, haha, you just faked death but it was so bad oh my god, I can't believe you did it, and that_ "blargh" _at the end, hahaha."_

 _Amanda was crying, red as a tomato, but she couldn't stop, neither could Joe._

" _And you, ho wow, you just crossed your arms and looked so offended, it was not even believable, it was ridiculous. Oh dear lord, I can't even breath."_

 _She was literally folded in two, tapping her knees with her hands, while the boy was clasping his arms around his torso, rolling on the bench. A good two minutes passed before they recovered enough to speak without going back to laughing hysterically._

" _Heheh, phew! That was good", said the girl._

 _There was another, more uneasy moment of silence._

" _Joe, she added, looking down to the ground, is it true when the others are saying you'll have to go for a week to study on your trait, with the Royal magician?"_

 _In an instant, her boyfriend became serious. Not many people liked to show their trait, but his was unusual. Joe was able to switch his trait to whichever of the seven known he wanted, but his Soul's usual color… was white. Ironic twist of fate for him and Amanda, she was the one being bullied for having magic, but he was the one possessing the Soul of a monster, white and upside down. It was a shock for the small town the young man grew in, but they guessed, naturally, that he feared the reaction he would get by showing such abnormal condition. Coming to life with a monster's Soul, yet able to switch trait. Everyone comforted him, even if some suspicious persons feared Joe a bit after the announcement, but nobody made a negative comment about it._

 _Fastforward about three weeks later. He woke up with, in his mailbox, an invitation. The rumors about him had spread quickly, rumors of a young boy without powers, but with the Soul of the exiled ones. Eventually, the archmage of the kingdom heard of him, and sent an invitation to pass a week at his place, to try and find out why he had such a peculiar condition. At the time this happened, wizards were barely starting to be thought of as dangerous, inhuman creatures, and in many places, they were still regarded highly, for they where the ones who managed to seal the monsters away during the war, and had a good reputation almost everywhere. In that time, wizards where just getting suspicious looks, but nothing had been made against them._

 _Two days later and here he was, explaining to the woman of his life, why he was quitting for the next week._

" _Don't worry, you know everything will be alright."_

 _She squeezed his hands in her own, strongly._

" _W-what if something happened on the way there, or if you can't come back? I could go with you! Maybe I could help."_

 _She barely whispered the end of the sentence, slightly desperate. Joe gently took her in his arms, slowly passing a hand trough her hairs, he knew this kind of gesture often calmed her when she was anxious._

" _Shhh, calm down, we'll talk about it tomorrow, I'm only going in two days."_

 _He lightly kissed her on the head. Yes, they would talk about it later. Then, maybe she'll be able to go with him. Neither of them would tell the other, but both Amanda and the young man hoped so._

 _Again, colors swirled together, before she found herself in some kind of lab, four days later. An alembic was next to her, but her attention quickly came back to her boyfriend and the man he was talking with. Tall, slender, and wrapped in the stereotypical robes wizards are pictured with. The pieces of clothing, and the hat, were always changing colors, depending on his mood. The gown was decorated by yellow points of a darker shade, which, by his explanation, represented his joy, degrading into a brighter one, for his hope of finding new knowledge. An interested orange made the greater part of the colors, while the base of the cloth was sporting a minty green, apparently for respect, but it was being slightly tinted with a deep green, sign of the mage's enviousness toward Joe. All of them were rapidly swirling on his hat, with a sporadic appearance of a surprised bright cyan color, making the hat a dizzying show to watch._

 _The young woman approached them. As she went nearer to the men, she used a moment of silence to ask a question._

" _Sorry to interrupt, but do we have any clue so far?"_

 _Amanda was obviously anxious. She loved the fact she could train with her powers, the place being equipped with a terrain for it, just outside. Joe on his side, discovered he had the ability to create a battle zone, but he mainly used it when he wanted privacy. So far, during the two days they had spent, he had learned to master the shield ability, Soul gun and the mechanics of the Bravery trait, which were basically "run into everything like a madman and don't stop to survive"._

 _Exor, the mage, turned toward her, but not before the two men exchanged a look of connivance._

" _Well, he explained as the cyan on his hat expanded for a moment, you see, yesterday, Joe showed me something that maybe you should see, too."_

 _They got back to the young man, who was red, the evidence of his shyness betrayed by the bright color. Just when she was about to ask what they wanted to show her, her boyfriend did something unexpected._

 _He took his Soul between his hands. Rapidly, the seven traits appeared, swirling, as magic fused around the thing, the effort making the boy sweat. While the colors spun, they melded and, beside a slight glow, the Soul came back to the normal white, before a bright flash of every colors blinded them, and the young women's heart sunk as she heard Joe grunting in pain, but the light was far too bright for her eyes to open._

 _Finally, silence came back, as well as their view, and, surprisingly enough, she felt dust tickling the inside of her nostrils, nearly making her sneeze. What the sorceress saw startled her._

 _In front of them stood, instead of a human, a monster. His appearance was that of a humanoid reptile-like being, with yellow and green scales randomly disposed on him. The legs were ended by three long claws each on a toe, an extra one sitting on the back of each foot. The knees looked inverted, but it did not seemed to destabilise the creature. Sprouting from the back of the monster, a thick tail helped to keep balance, about four time as long as he was tall, curled around him, and finishing with four spikes curled outward before meeting with their pointed ends only a few centimeter away from each other, looking like a rounded cage. The head possessed white hairs, from which they flowed like a mane of some sort, ending in a tiny tuft on the tip of the tail, like a small flame inside the bony cage formed by the spikes. The arms ended in four fingers, curved with a much smaller claw then the toes sported, the hands retaining somewhat opposable thumbs, even if their mobility was slightly decreased. The head had a long snout with the mouth comporting a forked tongue and sharp teeth, nearly unnoticeable nostrils at end of it. The top of the head had two thin, but long horns twisting on themselves, spiraling out to behind the head. The ears were simple holes. However, one thing retained Amanda's attention, the eyes. Blue, two spheres of a clear and pure blue with irises so dark she saw her own reflection in them, no doubt, it was still her boyfriend, no matter what._

 _The monster spoke in a raspy, tired voice, as if he just ran a marathon._

" _Hey, Amy, you're okay?"_

 _She looked as if she just saw a ghost._

" _I… I think I n-need to sit…"_

 _She immediately grabbed the nearest chair and promptly sat on it, clutching her head between he hands. She stayed in this position for a couple of awkward minutes, before suddenly erupting._

" _GOD DAMNIT I CAN'T BELIEVE… I JUST CAN'T… HAAAAA WHAT EVEN THE HELL WAS THAT?!"_

 _Joe whispered in Exor's ear as the girl was still loudly rambling._

" _You're sure she was ready for this, without any warning?"_

 _The mage did not know what to answer, he was obviously embarrassed, as a pale aquamarine color took all the place on his gown, while the cyan overtook his hat. Meanwhile, if she was still screaming, the woman had begun to calm down._

" _Just, why in the seven or how many the heck layers Dante's hell comport did I ignored this?!"_

" _Honey-"_

 _She immediately stopped him, a hand in front of her, clearly to mean "stop"._

" _Don't "honey" me, mister. You should've told me from the moment you knew! But nooooooooo, mister is too shy and needs an expert."_

 _She yelled at Joe again._

" _YOU NEEDED TO WAIT TILL THE FUCKIN ARCHMAGE SEND AN INVITATION TO YOU, OF COURSE! AND ON TOP OF IT YOU DON'T WARN ME! WHAT'S SO DAMN FUCKIN DIFFICULT ABOUT TELLING THE TRUTH, HUH?! I TRHUSTED YOU, AND YOU SHOULD'VE DONE JUST AS MUCH, JACKASS! ! !"_

 _She then proceeded to leave them, almost running to her room, cursing under her breath. (Monster Soul, tsk, I should've add two and two before), thought the angry girl._

" _Well, technically, you're a lizard, not a jackass… even if you acted like one, I must admit."_

 _It was all the other man said before leaving the monster here. Joe was still perplex about what just happened._

" _Huuu…"_

 _He heard from both rooms._

" _Don't even try!"_

 _He grimaced, and an embarrassed hiss escaped his throat._

"… _sorry…"_

 _In her room, Amanda, despite being furious toward her boyfriend, quickly fell asleep. When her eyes opened, this time she was talking with Joe, back in his human form, on the way back to town, five days later._

" _You know, she said, as dumb as it sounds, I'd never would've guessed one of your ancestors was a monster, even if it looks to be quite logic."_

 _He didn't replied, and she continued._

" _Joe, I'm sorry for snapping at you the other day. I did not have the right to do so, it was unfair."_

 _Only silence responded for a few minutes, until…_

" _Wow, five days."_

 _She blinked in surprise._

" _W-what?"_

 _She saw Joe smiling. Well, it might not have been a big smile, but the corner of his lips were raised slightly._

" _It took you five days to say something in the likes of "I'm sorry". I bet you had that moment stuck in your head all the while we were still at Exor's place."_

 _By now, he was definitely grinning at her like the Cheshire cat. She sighed._

" _With that shit eating smile on your face I feel almost sorry now… for apologising."_

" _Hey!"_

 _Her voice echoed around them._

" _Hahaha! I'm joking, come on!"_

 _He chuckled._

" _Eh, alright, I fell right for it, I admit."_

 _At least the uneasy feeling of the last days vanished. Amanda finally spoke again._

" _So, if I recall what Exor said the other day, your blood contains magic, but aside a few things you can't use it for much, right?"_

 _He nodded._

" _That's right. He also talked about how I change my trait. From what we discovered, my Soul could classified as quote on quote "unstable". But in the way that as a human, I should've inherited a trait from one of my parents."_

" _But you didn't."_

" _Exactly. Instead, because of my lineage, I inherited from both side. I have a monster Soul, from this side of the family, but I can switch my trait, thank to my parents being humans."_

 _Something clicked in her mind._

" _If you had to die in your second form, would you turn to dust like monsters do?"_

 _He shook his head._

" _No, whether I'm in my human or monster form, I am still a being made of flesh, blood and bones. My core being is still the same, only my appearance change. So if I'd die as a monster, it would still be, you know, gross, blood and all that jazz."_

 _He felt a silent question hanging in the air._

" _Go on, I know you have something to ask Amy."_

 _She looked curiously at him, then asked._

" _Well, you may not turn to dust, but when you did your… thing back there, there was dust."_

 _His smile grew larger, before he openly laughed._

" _Did I said something weird?"_

" _No, it's just that, it wasn't dust."_

 _She frowned._

" _What was it then?"_

" _Magic. It was magic. You see, I can't directly use the magic, except for the bubble thingy I can create. Nevertheless, keep in mind something we learned one time from Jay, "magic is a matter as solid as ice or wood, just extremely fragile and always in movement", so you can guess this thing is what alters my body. It's with that knowledge in mind that the archmage made a hypothesis."_

 _Joe pouted._

" _But, knowing him, it was so long that I did not retained a thing."_

 _She was the one laughing now._

" _Pfff did you even listened?"_

" _Hey, I listened!"_

 _Just as she replied, darkness englobed everything, and when a bright light shun before her eyes, Amanda sprinted toward the source of it._

In the real world, the woman's peaceful expression shifted to one of fear.

 _She was going back home, after school ended._

" _Amanda!"_

 _It was on her left, Mr. Jefferson's voice! What was going on? They had only been back about three days ago. Couldn't she have at least a week without trouble or any shocking news?_

" _Jay! What's going on?!"_

 _She ran at him, they met at the center of the little street in front of the library, which was only two streets away from the school. The sun was setting down, and each minute made it more difficult for her to discern his traits. Breathing heavily, her teacher said something that chilled her._

" _It's your parents, Amanda… Something's in the house with them."_

 _She didn't need to hear more before bolting in the direction of said house, which sat almost at the end of the town, about six streets away in a diagonal direction. On the way, she bumped into Joe, which was coming the opposite direction. Since he announced the big news, everyone had been enthusiastic, finally they would be able to learn more on the monsters! But there was no time to talk, and seeing the urgency and fear in his loved one's steely eyes, he helped her up, and with Jay, all three ran as fast as possible to the house. Upon reaching the street, they passed in front of the teacher's house, which was situated at the opposite end of the street where Amanda lived. Finally, they stopped in front of the Greyhound's habitation._

 _At first, it seemed like someone had dropped a bomb near it. The ground around the small two-story building was burned with different colors, which trailed inside. Muffled screams and bright flashing projectiles could be occasionally seen and heard. Obviously, whatever was in the house was still there._

" _We have to help them!"_

 _Without further ado, she ran to the door, not listening to Jay's frantic screams of warning._

" _WAIT NO!"_

 _Too late, the woman ran in an invisible wall, which send her flying backward to her friend's feet. For a moment, they could see a black thing in the form of the doorframe, swirling, like sand on the surface of a liquid. The "wall" rapidly paled and again, it was invisible. Amanda was on the borderline of pure terror. How would they help her parents if they couldn't get in?_

" _W-what is that thing?!"_

 _Sigh from the teacher._

" _That's what I tried to tell you, nobody can enter the house without this sort of wall sending us back."_

 _They felt silent, the only thing breaking the silence being the screams and flying bolts of magic. After some minutes had passed, however…_

" _WHAT IN THE HOLY SAINT NAME OF JESUS AND GOD IS THAT? ! ? ! ?"_

 _Everyone jumped in surprise at the newcomer's voice. They turned around, to discover none other than Exor, the Royal magician!_

 _Joe was the first to talk._

" _Exor?! Why are you here?!"_

 _Moving his hat back in proper place, the old man explained._

" _I sensed dark magic and decided to investigate myself."_

" _D-dark magic", they all blurted out._

 _The old man gave out a desperate sigh. Its emotions were clearly visible, an icy blue of disappointment disputing its place on the hat with the pale surprised cyan, while the rest of his outfit was covered in a disgusted purplish lavender._

" _What do we even teach to kids these days? Guess I will have to make a brief summary for you. Dark magic is the corrupted form of normal magic. It is unbelievably hard to control, which is a wonder how one could make a magic barrier of such power. Dark magic is much, much more powerful, but also much more dangerous than our normal magic."_

 _Jay stood up to the wizard._

" _If it is THAT strong, how could we go through this thing on the door?"_

 _This time, the purple divided the gown and hat in two equal parts, each swirling with distinct colors, but never did a side mixed with the other. The other half occupied by a sudden aggressive red, spinning round and around with an angry magenta, while to the purple, was added a wildly moving darker variant of the color : revulsion. As weird and funny did the mage looked now, the perfectly divided colors clearly gave off a sense of warning, if not danger._

 _With barely held anger in his voice, Exor replied, fist clenched, a bright, white pure flame lightening up around them. The bright colors sometimes shifted to one of the six colors of the Soul, but never longer than a short second, always taking back the original white coloration._

" _I can only tell you this, if strong, this magic has one weakness, it can't resist pure magic in a_ physical _form. For it to work, we need something imbued with it, a weapon, but there is none around here, all I could do is… wait a second… "_

 _His voice trailed off to a slight whisper as the flames diminished in strength, before flaring up again. The screams were getting higher in pitch, something was definitely going wrong. Finally, he spoke to the trio in front of him._

" _I have a plan, Joe, I want you to take your monster form, it will be more resilient to this…_ _ **thing**_ _. Mister…"_

 _Mr. Jefferson got up as he understood he was the one being addressed to._

" _Oh! My name is Henry, Henry Jefferson, but everyone call me Jay. What should I do?"_

" _Jay, I want you to find something sharp, solid and with great piercing potential. Can you do this in… five minutes? Maybe seven or height?"_

" _O-of course, my cousin is the owner of the forge, he'll understand if I take something, I do it often… I always manage to break my tools… A-alright, I'm on it!"_

 _He ran to the forge, leaving the two wizards, Joe getting away. He needed a calm place to do his thing._

" _*sigh* Amanda, do you know why I'm the one in my post at the court?"_

" _E-excuse me?"_

 _He lowered his head he had lifted toward the barely visible stars, and stared at her._

" _You know, most wizards posses a trait, but… I don't, yet I've worked further than anyone in magic, which is why I got the king's attention. My researches used concepts either rarely used, or simply inexistent until I discovered them."_

 _All he got from the young woman was a quizzical look, clearly she did not understood how this was related to their current situation._

" _I was declared Royal wizard after an incident implying this form of magic we have to confront right now. Disappearances had started three weeks ago in the region I lived in, and I foolishly decided to go alone and discover what was really happening. Should I had stayed home, maybe I'd never had access to this post."_

 _As Exor felt silent, Amanda got him to continue his story by asking him something. Two minutes had already passed._

" _What happened then?"_

 _A sad smile made its way one old man's face, but the colors did not shifted on his clothes._

" _I… I was, ironically enough, kidnapped, too. A sorcerer using dark magic was responsible of everything. As I wandered off into the nearby forest, a spell hit me right in the face. Too late to replicate, I was already asleep. When I woke up, I found, attached as I soon found myself to be, at a used, decrepit pole of wood, a woman. I immediately recognised her, she was Corina, the one occupying my post at the time these events took place."_

 _Wait, she had heard that name before!_

" _C-Corina? THE Corina Sunflare?!"_

 _He looked at her and made a sign to calm down the woman._

" _Again, attached to three other poles, two women, and one other man. I soon understood, by the patterns on the ground, and the way we were disposed in front of each other, we would soon be the ingredients of some occult ritual. However, luck was on our side."_

" _What happened?"_

" _Corina, well, she used to know some strange charms. I don't know what she said, but she sung an old sounding melody, like a lullaby, and my restraint loosened. Why me, I never knew."_

 _He took in a long breath, and expired afterward. About four, maybe five minutes passed now._

" _She told me what to do. I've burned everyone's bindings, and we created ethereal clones to take our place. Illusion magic is easier, after all, and we had not much time. As the perpetrator came back, we… I think the term is_ unified _our magics. He was strong, even more than Corina, but she told us what to do. We fused a single, carefully chosen spell, each, and put the resulting ball of unstable magic in the gem on her scepter."_

 _Amanda started to see where this was going. Around six minutes passed, Joe was back, carefully listening too._

" _The gem was shining a bright white, brighter than a thousand suns, beautiful to see. As we distracted him, we heard a banishing spell being chanted, and a pure light hit our aggressor in the back… He simply… vanished, as well as all the eldritch abominations he conjured that I will avoid to describe to you. That day, I understood just how nocuous dark magic is to this world, as well as how to deal with it."_

 _A single, small white orb appeared in his hand as the white fire went away in a last colorful few flames._

 _It was at that moment that Henry came back with a metal spear._

" _This, will be what will hold it. A special container I designed during years, if not decades. Made specifically for this kind of case, able to contain a great amount of corrupted magic."_

" _It looks like a pearl", said Jay._

 _The man resolutely looked at Amanda._

" _What's the strongest spell you know?"_

 _She hesitated, but answered nonetheless._

" _Uh, I… I know the one for the spirit mess thingy, like there's more than one Soul, and you want to focus on just the bad one…?"_

 _Exor shook his head._

" _No, no, no, that won't do. Here's the spell you will recite."_

 _He leaned toward Amanda, he whispered into her ear._

 _She looked back at the archmage, and nodded._

" _I can do it."_

 _He took the spear from Jefferson's hands and forced its blunt end to stick in the ground._

" _Then let's begin, we lost enough time as it is, and each second your parents chance are going down."_

 _She begun to create a small, cubic form, and as she spoke, it glowed stronger and brighter._

" _Malum non habet hic locum. Poterit ad infernum remittuntur. Huc ut numquam ad tentandum contaminant puris videri debet tueri. Ut luceat lux in tenebris, ut noxia cupiunt miasma interitum suum, et in conspectu ejus in nihilum redigeretur, sicut et nos back accipere id quod nostrum est._ _"_

 _The man, stood there, moving its fingers. As they moved faster and faster, a strange design, like a web, took form._

 _Finally, as the web was finished, the cube shattered, and the pieces melted on the lines of magic composing the web, which surrounded completely the spear, melting on it, the burned lines of the spell starting to glow a bright light._

 _Exor handed the spear to Joe, who had been hissing anxiously the whole time, his tail tapping the ground, making two marks each time the bony protrusions hit it._

" _Finally, maybe I shouldn't…"_

 _The lizard was shook by his girlfriend._

" _WE DON'T HAVE TIME, DO YOUR THING AND THEN WE KICK THE BASTARD'S ASS WHO IS TRYING TO KILL MY PARENTS! ! !"_

 _He mumbled as he took it._

" _Ok ok, you don't need to yell at me."_

 _The wizard turned toward him._

" _Be careful, the magic of this spear is as close as being the most perfect antithesis possible to the corrupted one. The dark magic will react violently, and may attack you, so don't hesitate to use your abilities to destroy the barricade. Once your job is done, we will go in, while you will isolate the house, so whatever's in it won't escape. Am I clear enough?"_

" _Yeah, I'll be careful."_

 _Joe started approaching the doorway, when the swirling black rectangle appeared, motionless. As he stepped closer, it began to swing forward and backward, and tried to grab him, the spear between his claws even brighter while being so close to the thing. In a matter of seconds, Joe simply swung the spear across the rectangle, ripping through it like it was nothing, and the thing became completely immobile._

 _A bright flash appeared, and the next thing they saw, was Exor holding the hand with the pearl-like sphere toward the house. The globe was siphoning the destroyed barricade, which turned into a black smoke, sucked right into the artifact. The thing became clouded with the magic inside it, swirling, trying to escape, to no avail._

 _The sounds were only getting louder from the habitation._

" _Let's go."_

 _It was all he said. They bolted inside the house, to find a deceiving show._

 _Everything was torn down, from the ceiling's lights to the rug on the floor, without mentioning the once blue curtains, now hanging miserably, barely a few centimeter of blue recognizable on the burned tissue._

 _Each room was simply destroyed, plain, no longer discernible from one another._

 _As the four of them went inside, Amanda immediately saw a form she could tell from any other._

 _Her father was laying down on his side, dead. A great chunk of his torso had been cleanly taken away, a smooth circle with slight indents of sharp teeth in it. Next to him, was a pile of black ashes, reeking of the smell of sulfur._

 _She clenched her fists, shaking away Joe, who had put a hand on her shoulder, Exor and Henry both looking sadly toward the woman._

" _Let's find that bastard and end this now", the sorceress grunted between her teeth, her bow forming between her hands._

 _A bolt of magic flashed before them, black, so dark that light itself seemed to be trapped by it, giving its perimeter a distorted look. Their turned their head, and everyone went ready as they saw a black shadow undulating before them, facing Amanda's mother._

 _Exor readied the artifact, bright flames flaring up around his other hand, Amanda took a conjured arrow and aimed it for the strange creature, Joe lifting the spear that was now shining almost in a blinding manner, Jay simply not knowing what to do._

 _A second bolt rushed toward them, but was deflected by Joe, who used the spear. Amanda let the projectile go, and it flew straight for the solid mass of darkness facing the group. The arrow disintegrated on its way to the target, but then was shortly followed by the manifest shockwave taking place during a battlefield's creation, the shock distorting the shadow a bit more. While it recovered its form, whispers resonated. Seconds later, a hole seemingly leading nowhere opened in the air, and burned down tentacles and blind eyes, the mouth being the pupil, gaping, exited of it, the organs flying by flapping two tiny wings, filled with holes. Following the abominations, a horde of tiny silhouettes were rapidly vomited by the vortex, worms of unknown nature, red and black, dripping a sickly green liquid, fumes emanating from it whenever it touched anything other than the worms or their allies, dissolving even the hard stone floor._

 _Exor was feeling a beginning of panic, the colors mixing before showing a blue so dark it might as well had been black. The red mixed into the disgusted purple with the blue in a degrade at some places of the clothing._

 _The sound of something being dropped to the floor was heard._

 _*Bang!*_

 _A yellow bullet zipped through the air in a blazing trail, tearing off parts of tentacles and exploding a flying eye. Everyone looked for a second at Joe, who had switched his trait to the Justice one, his Soul now shining the same golden light as Amanda's, her weapons and the gun he was now holding between his claws. Another one appeared, and he started firing with great accuracy, tearing many tentacles apart, as well as the ocular globes, influencing, through the small amount of magic he possessed, the trajectory of the projectiles._

 _Amanda focused on a group of eyeballs coming their way, and summoned a wall of arrows, all held in place by magic bows. She lifted her fingers, and hell rained upon the flying monsters, piercing through them like it was nothing, their mouth moving one last time before they exhaled a black smoke, the smell of the volcanic rock overpowering, yellow dust starting to fill the air with each breathing of the unholy creatures._

 _Jay took the spear, and not knowing what to make of it, slashed through the air, creating a curved blade of magic, which then cut down some tentacles. Surprised, he started swinging it madly whenever something was too close to his friends for his own taste, assuring the close defense of the group._

 _On his side, Exor was taking charge of the acid mass writhing their way, and blocked the projectiles launched from the obscure being's hands. The mage was launching barrage after barrage of scorching flames, burning down everything trying to pass through it, wherever it was in the room. Slowly, he was making his way toward the portal, getting ready to use the orb, covered by the three friends fighting with him._

 _For Amanda's mother, things were not going so smoothly, the shield she had managed to create was cracked badly, menacing to give up any instant under the pressure of the of waves of miasma and dark energy sent toward it relentlessly._

 _Meanwhile, Jay, having took the place in front, was grazed by the balls of darkness the archmage was unable to block. To his amazement, he realised the dark magic was absorbed by his body, in return strengthening his own natural attacks._

" _So that's what Exor meant by resilient."_

 _Meanwhile, Exor had managed to come close enough to the portal to close it, still vomiting beings sent straight from the bottom of hell. Presenting the artifact, the portal, its border being composed of a thick fume, turning round and around, spiraled toward the object, like a magnet attracting another one. Finally, the vortex closed up, the tentacles remaining all cut, and the other atrocities now unable to get help from others of their kind. The orb had now turned a deep black, the mist of corrupted magic swirling even more madly then before, like a miniature storm unable to let its destructive potential out._

 _An echo, or at least something distortedly sounding like an echo escape the being's lips, if it had any. The sound was a pure mess, as the place started to burn, black flames sprouting like bad grass everywhere._

" _Bxaah, kaxcqna, kcd R qjen dapnwc cqrwpb cx mx. Bjmuh, truurwp hxd rbw'c xwn xo cqnv, kdc kn jbbdanm cqjc cqrwpb fruu kn mroonanwc wngc crvn… R'uu truu hxd frcw vh kjan qjwmb ro R qjen cx… Hxd fxw'c kn jkun cx qrmn Ijaru'b parvxra oxa vdlq uxwpna."_

 _The older woman seemed to understand what the creature said, and nearly screamed at the entity, angry, sad, yet strong and willing to die doing what was right._

" _You won't ever find the book, you bastard, years ago, we've hid it somewhere you won't ever be able to find it. So good luck with that, asshole."_

 _She glanced one time at her daughter, and smiled, a single tear, reflecting light like a diamond, rolling down her cheek._

" _Amy, my sweet Amy, you can't know how sorry I am to have to do this. I don't expect of you to understand. The only thing I can ask of you, is to stay strong and be yourself, don't let others tell you what to do, never bow down to those who seek evil in this world, the death you would encounter by fighting them could be hundreds times sweeter then the torture they would make you go through. Please, live on, for me, and your dad, you are the only thing that made us go forward… but it's time to say good bye. Remember what we say in the family. Always aim before letting the arrow go, and never let your guard down so tomorrow will come."_

 _Amanda nodded, tears freely going down from her eyes, hitting the floor._

 _Her mother managed to laugh._

" _Eh, never understood that old adage… cover your eyes, now."_

 _Her purple Soul came out, the magic in it suddenly swirling around it, a mist of the same color coming out of the forming cracks in the Soul. All in one go, time seemed to slow down to the extreme, as the mist balled up under the heart-shaped thing, the trait literally_ draining _from it, like emptying water from the underside of a bottle, leaking into the ball of raw magic, fueling the destruction it was ready to unleash._

 _Exor screamed to them._

" _SHE'S UNLEASHING HER MAGIC, TAKE COVER!"_

 _At that moment, everything sped back up to normal. Joe took the woman in his arms, switching his trait to the green one, and englobed the four of them inside a green bubble, somewhat transparent. The protection was immediately strengthened by Exor, veins of silver magic running on top of the green bubble._

 _Everything turned to white._

 _The old woman's eye turned dull, as her Soul finished crumbling away, and the energy contained in the ball imploded, going in and out repeatedly, before expanding. The battlefield did not even stood a chance to contain the fiery monster. Up to two hundred meters away, everything simply vanished, erased from this world, as the ball of destruction continued its way to kill everything standing before it._

 _Amanda was crying, as she recalled what an Unleashing would mean. The white and gold of the fire was surrounding them, and she was oblivious to it, pressed against the lizards scales, with the weird thought of them being smoother then she'd imagine in her barely functioning mind._

 _In the end, the reddening orb retracted, and disappeared in an unsettlingly calm manner, now a tiny dot, slowly vanishing. The protection had a hard time holding on, but it did its job, none of the four of them had been hurt. A few seconds later, it vanished, and Joe fell on his knees, as he never had to use his abilities for such a long period of time, even less for battling._

 _So was the shadow._

 _It slowly turned to face them, almost giving off the feeling it was grinning. Without a word, the strange being wavered and faded off, nowhere to be seen, surely now far away._

 _They saw light projecting their shadows before them, and everyone turned to see the population of the village facing them, anger and sadness in their eyes, unable to understand what had just happened. All they were sure of, was that someone had to be the culprit of this devastation._

 _The blame fell on Amanda._

 _Whispers started to spread among the villagers._

" _It's the witch. She is dangerous. Have you seen what she has done? What is she… Don't go near her, she's dangerous."_

 _Her eyes watered once more. The sorceress ignored that at this moment, her classmates came in around her, protecting her from the others. Joe helped her up, and she let him go ahead, trying to stand up with him._

" _Amanda, listen, you have to run away, we will hold them as long as possible" he whispered, before his tail started to tap the ground in anxiety and fear. Exor approached her, and showed the orb, now a ruby red._

" _Please, Amanda, I know it's a lot to ask of you, but I can't do it myself, the orb is currently filled to the brim with the corrupted energy inside of it. Please, you have to find a safe place for this artifact, it can't be unloaded of the dark magic without causing uncontrollable destruction around it. Please, I can't do it myself, but I'll stay here and help your friends."_

 _She was on the verge of falling on the ground in a crying mess. Jay came toward Amanda, grabbed her firmly by the shoulders and shook her off her shocked state._

" _Amy, I saw you growing up, you were always strong, even as a kid, and the Amanda I see right now is not the fearless woman I saw growing under my own eyes during these years, years during which I've been your teacher and friend. Now, look at me, and dry your tears."_

 _She did as demanded, and tried to regain some bravery._

" _A-alright… I'll do my best."_

 _She took the orb gently, and looked at the three of them._

" _You can't k-know how happy I've been to have you three in my life. Exor, thanks to you, I know that magic can do so much more then simply be a weapon or a mean of defense."_

 _He nodded respectfully, the minty green taking all the place on his clothes. She turned to Henry._

" _Jay, with you, I learned to make friends, to laugh and live as an happy girl, despite my differences, as they are what makes me strong, unique and define who and what I am. I could never thank you enough for all of this."_

 _He smiled, himself on the border of tears._

" _Please stop, or I'll cry too."_

 _She chuckled, before facing the lizard._

" _Joe… at first, you were my only, my closest friend, and now look at us. You taught me what love was, and that life always has beautiful and surprising things to show us. Never in my life would I thought I would possibly had fallen in love with any other person. I love you, so, so much. I feel like leaving you is breaking my heart a second time after the horrors we just witnessed."_

 _She addressed them all, a sad grin on her face, looking down._

" _I hope we will meet again some day, under the sun and free."_

 _They looked at each other a last time, and she departed, as the three of them went to help the others against the villagers._

 _Where was she going to go? First, she should try to exit the town._

 _Amanda did not covered half the length of the ruined street before a scream stopped her right away._

 _A pitchfork trough the torso, Jay was kneeling, blood leaking profusely from the wound, before falling in a heap on the hard, cold ground._

 _Her friends, they were falling one after the other… and there was nothing she was able to do, but watch._

 _A few seconds later, two twins that she used to know well fell too, embracing each other, their blood sucked in by the dehydrated dirt under them._

 _She looked toward the mage, who saw her there, motionless, and he screamed at her._

" _Amanda, run for goodness' sake!"_

 _The next moment, he was looking down at his chest, a citizen having caught him off guard. The tip of a blade going right through his heart. He had no time to do anything, he fell, as the others did._

 _The girl shook her head, unable to accept what was happening._

" _No no no no, this can't be real, this can't be…", she thought to herself._

 _The horror was not over yet._

" _Amanda damn it, go away bef-ack!"_

 _Joe was looking at her, his Soul in front of him, and she just looked at the heart slowly crumbling, her eyes widening in terror._

" _Why…", he sighed as his Soul completely shattered, before falling to the ground, the white spear lodged in the back of his head._

" _J-Joe…" she whimpered back as she clutched her head between her hands, closing her eyes._

 _The angry mass of people was approaching, always nearer, ready to kill her._

 _Something clicked in her mind._

" _NO! ! ! !"_

 _Hundreds of arrows materialized from nothing, as waves of yellow magic surged violently from Amanda, destroying any resistance, as the projectiles flews like bolts of lightning at their target._

 _None missed._

…

 _How much time had passed? Three hours? A day? Maybe a week? When she looked up, the sorceress gasped at the carnage she discovered. Dozens, hundreds, nearly a thousand corpses, friends, families, acquaintances, young, old, healthy or sick, poor like riches, all were laying down, dead._

 _She was the only survivor._

 _She felt cold, even colder than she thought it was possible, as a chill ran down her back. The whole village was burning down, but she was so cold…_

 _Her Soul felt frozen…_

 _Groggily, she got up on her feet, giving one last glare at her friends, tears running without end, but they would never be enough to express the sadness and grief that filled her heart. She started to walk, head low, barely looking where she was going._

 _After what felt like an eternity, her tired body suddenly gave up. After all the tension, the emotion and recent events, the effort her body gave after going up the more and more pronounced inclination of the ground, she collapsed in a sobbing mess on the ground of the small cave where her feet brought her. She quickly fell pray to sleep, nightmares making her roll right and left, before she woke up, feeling herself falling down._

 _She was falling down in the darkness of a giant hole. She prepared for the landing, but her worn out body could not handle the shock._

 _The moment her back made contact with the grassy floor, she lost consciousness, the artifact she was clutching between her hands rolling away, before something picked it up, and ran away._

The woman woke up suddenly, breathing heavily, her visage wet with something she thought she would never experience again.

Tears.

Amanda had been crying in her sleep, and had fell from the old mattress. Luckily, as she looked around, she saw that morning was far away from now, and that Frisk and Clovis were sleeping soundly.

\- Mom, dad, Exor, Jay, she whispered.

The memories she was supressing since her arrival in the Underground were flooding back, after 30 long years living down there.

\- _J o e..._

It was as if a dam had broke inside her.

Like never before, the flow of the salty water ran, and ran down her cheeks as time passed. She cried until early in the morning, when the light started to return.

Amanda was inconsolable.

* * *

Is it normal that I kinda hate myself for making her story like super sad and all that stuff? Probably…

Ps : The strange gibberish of the shadowy creature is NOT gibberish. Good luck.

*Author ran away faster than Sonic can eat a chilidog*


	17. Chapter 16 - Unbearable memories

So, just out of curiosity, has anyone deciphered the coded paragraph in the last chapter? Just to know, that's all. Okay, let's see how this will play out, and also, I really hope you enjoyed the kind of "backstory/resume" on Amanda's past.

Oh, and to anyone that the few last lines could potentially have confused, Amanda had suffered partial amnesia because of the shock that happened when she literally crashed down in the underground. Okay, that's all, let's go.

* * *

Amanda had passed the few last hours weeping as all the emotions that she had to go through in her dream overwhelmed her. Sobbing, as she had finally managed to calm down, the grown woman wiped away the remaining tears, feeling utterly destroyed on the inside, as if something had made her just as fragile as the ice covering the river outside. A single blow, and she would shatter.

"I can't let them see me like this", the sorceress thought.

She managed to stop crying for good, and decided to look outside, before letting out a gasp of dismay.

The landscape was unrecognizable.

As the ceiling was slowly, one small portion at a time, lighting up from far away, Amanda saw high piles of snow covering entire parts of the view. Just by the condensed water on the door's window, since the interior was a lot warmer then the outside, she could tell that the river had surely frozen on more than a few centimeters. At least they would not need to put the wooden bridge of planks on to cross the stream. Even she wanted to, it was almost a certainty that said bridge was already lost underneath all that snow and ice.

She simply sighed, and thought it would be best to start breakfast, she had some eggs, milk and diverse vegetables, she could always cook a quiche.

\- Well, she said aloud, with the last one having rolled away… I'm not too sure it would be the best idea to try this one again, she murmured desperately. That was the problem with monsters, you could not even tell if the food was really food until you cooked it, and the number of times she did something just for the result jumping or rolling away was simply ridiculous.

\- I guess I'll stick to salad, then. Food shouldn't even be able to be alive, she suddenly exclaimed.

Mumbling, the woman got to the shelves, and took one of the last cans remaining, she should go in town today, while she would guide her new guests to Waterfall. She never had really gone to this part of the Underground, but had seen from afar, whenever the weather granted them a clear view, the spectacle of the multicolored gems embedded in the southern walls. It was gorgeous, but for some reason she had always some sort of nostalgic feeling mixing to a sudden sadness when she looked at the red ones.

\- The red gems, she faintly remembered something just as beautiful, but oh so dangerous.

Only, now that she had recovered all of her memories, Amanda became stressed as her attention shifted to the one little thing she had to protect.

"The orb could be anywhere in the Underground at the moment, and a foolish monster may inadvertently unleash the dark magic trapped inside", she realized. However, thinking back to the artifact brought back with it the atrocious events of this evening, when her life took the worst direction possible. She began to think about the shadow, attacking her and her friends, the creatures that attempted at their lives, Exor, holding out the orb, her mother's last words, and her trembling grey eyes, as she herself watched her Soul breaking apart, before the finally dull irises had gone blind, and the fire, everywhere, the pain in the villagers' look, and…

The can dropped down before being received silently by the thick rug on the floor, emitting only the slight sound of its content moving around. Amanda was clutching her head, a horrible pressure hurting her, as if a fiery dozen of red-hot needles had been puncturing the inside of her brain. Against her will, her own eyes watered again, as the sorceress desperately fought back against the emotions these memories caused to surge inside of her mind.

She was completely paralyzed, unable to organize her thoughts coherently, as she locked up in this position for what felt like an eternity. As she stood there, the mental images flashed behind her eyes, faster and faster, like a slideshow having gone out of control, clicking through each pages.

They would not stop.

*click*

The black magic.

*click*

Joe breaking the barricade.

*click*

Exor trapping the energy inside the pearl-like device.

*Click*

The corpse of her father, the side having a great chunk bitten off by something.

*Click*

The ball of darkness flying merely a few millimeters away from her face.

*Click*

Her mother, desperately fighting against the shadow.

*Click*

The creatures.

*Click*

The overwhelming odor of sulfur.

*Click*

The piles of black ashes.

*Click*

Exor brandishing the artifact to close the vortex.

*CLicK*

Her mother finally giving up.

*CliCK*

Her Soul, empty.

*ClicK*

The fire.

*CLiCk*

The shadow, the feeling of it's invisible smile creeping up and freezing her heart for a moment.

*CLIck*

The villagers, looking at the devastation around them.

*click*

Her friends fighting for her, falling one after the other.

*click*

Jay.

*Click*

Exor.

*CLick*

The others.

*CLIck*

Jay…

*CLICk*

Her, on the ground, quivering in fear and shock, making her look an afraid animal.

*CLICK*

The arrows.

*CLICK*

The carnage.

*Flink*

Amanda eventually blinked, as she found herself supporting the weight of her body more with the arms then the legs, grasping forcefully the sink, tears making a wet, yet metallic sound when hitting the polished surface.

Without even noticing, in the now dim light that surrounded the area, as the ceiling was half lighted up, she had started to sob, each time the shaking of her body bringing more tears crashing down in the sink.

\- I can't…, she whimpered, trembling slightly.

\- I just… can't.

The joints of Amanda's hands were white from the force she was applying on the counter.

\- … why.

The sorceress had begun shaking her head negatively, despite there being no concrete reason to do so, her feelings getting the best of her.

\- Why?

Her hands had started to let go.

\- Why?!

She had slowly let go, her arms giving up, the legs soon following suit, as she then crumbled down in a ball, softly crying to herself.

Despite Frisk and Clovis still asleep, she couldn't find the courage to wake them and to tell the truth. She barely knew them, they should not be implicated in this. She had to be the one to support the weight of it, the weight of her painful memories.

…

Then why did it felt so wrong?

…

No, not wrong.

Why did the weight of them felt so unbearable then?

Left to herself, Amanda shakily rose up, before taking her coat, going out without so much as a glance toward the form of the two magicians safely resting in the one room of the house.

She silently went away from the construction, trying to lose herself in the forest, far enough. Slithering between the centuries-old pines and firs, she sobbed again. As a strong sensation came over the woman.

Now assured that she was far enough, Amanda tumbled down, resting on her knees, before falling, completely laying in the snow, one hefty root being the only support her head had fallen on. The thud of the wood against her cheek, and the slight pain were unable to drown the mental one Amanda was in.

"Cursed", she thought, ashamed, "I am cursed".

\- Why does everybody that I love must be taken away from me…, she asked to the wind, almost silently.

But no answer came to her, as she stayed still, in the snow, not feeling the sharp sting of the cold on her skin.

Finally, hours of crying, and the weight of her memories forced the woman to close her eyes, as she once again fell asleep. Only did at that moment she realised what was that feeling of something being wrong.

Alone.

No matter where she went, or with who she would be, she would always be alone.

Amanda was alone, a broken human amidst a multitude of monsters and none of them even knew of her presence.

Her injuries were not physical, her mind broke down the day she lost everything, and that was her deepest scar, the most painful of them all.

She had no longer anything to hold on to.

And nobody could ever heal such wounds.

* * *

Okay, I know it's kinda short, but I planned a super long chapter after the next one, because, well, Snowdin is one of the longest area, without any proper important character beside Sans and Papyrus. Also, I wanted to focus just a little longer on Amanda. Next time, Frisk and co. is going to continue their travel.

*As the author go away, you notice on their desk a little scribble (a heart?) with two letters inside : "F-S".*

*Just below, there is a sentence.* Haters gonna hate, this one is going to land no matter what happens.

*You're not sure of the meaning of this.*


	18. Chapter 17 - Leaving no one behind

**Update for this AN : Hey everyone, I know I should've updated this story ages ago, but well, I guess I messed that up, right? So, I want to say, this story is far, FAR from being dead, at all. Still, here I am, and back to writing too! So, I want you all to know that, luckily, I have not been idle all along, I've been working on other stories, new ones even. Maybe you saw them? Or not, none of my concern actually. So, there is something special coming, and when this "special occasion", happens, well... at least I know that I will have to do a massive upload of many chapters ¯W¯'**

 **However, it's not before some time, in three months, more precisely. Why? Well, let's say there's a little thing about the number 18...**

 **So, I'll see you all that specific day, alright?**

 **And if you are complaining about the fact that I haven't made it clear WHEN, then what are you thinking?! It's supposed to be a surprise! I won't spill the beans just like that, at least I gave you a hint... Can you guess the date?**

 **So, guess that's all. Bye.**

* * *

Nothing to say, aside that, honestly, I don't want to spend too much time on the portion of Snowdin, mainly because I feel it is too big of an area, just like Waterfall is (for Hotland… I just have that feeling like it was built around a giant cliff of something… at the same time, that would explain partly why the exit of Mt. Ebott is so high up above sea level…). However, don't think I'll just skip parts (well, beside Papyrus' rambling. *sigh* I know I'm rambling too), this part of the adventure will be just as complete as the rest. Now, time for me to shut up, the duo in the cabin needs to rescue the frozen stick that Amanda is becoming.

* * *

[At Sans and Papyrus' house]

\- ugh, mornin' bro.

\- WHY, HELLO BROTHER! HAVE YOU SLEPT WELL?

\- uh? oh, yeah, i slept like a **rock**.

\- *SIGH* IT HASN'T BEEN TWO MINUTES AND YOU'RE ALREADY GOING WITH THE PUNS BASED OFF OUR PET ROCK. I SWEAR I DON'T KNOW HOW I CAN SUPPORT YOU.

\- aaawww, c'mon, paps, you know you love'em.

\- YEAH, SOME, EXCEPT THE PASTA ONES.

\- why? is it because they're **expired**?

\- OH MY GOD SANS I SWEAR! ! !

\- woah, **chill** down bro, no need to give me a **cold** shoulder here. after all, there' **s now** problem. but i fear the blizzard might have got us **sowdin** cuz the door won't budge right now.

\- HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

\- oof, is it me or it's getting **hot** in there?

*PapyrusEXE stopped responding*

[On Chara's side]

The ghost was travelling above the dunes of snow that had formed during the night, searching for her friends. So far, the princess had found nobody, even a monster.

\- Urgh, they can't have disappeared like that!

Chara had been holding tightly to the grimoire she had borrowed from Clovis. Having found a small crevice in a rock wall, she had made amethyst flames grow to get some light, having read until the blizzard took end. For many hours she had been reading more on her issue, technically, getting back a body would be possible, but such things would be of the order of miracles. Deceived, she had closed the book, before going out in search of her companions.

The spirit had searched even in the tallest snow piles, where the others could potentially had been trapped, but their was nothing. She had been across the region of Snowdin two time already, back and forth, for another time, she was heading back, when suddenly, she heard something. It seemed like the wind had been carrying some sound.

Halting, the princess tried to listen more closely, before she finally distinguished what she had heard.

Someone was crying.

Forgetting she could simply fly, Chara landed, and started to run.

"Oh no, don't tell me they tried to cross the river", she thought in her alarmed state.

She ran for many minutes, but when she passed the "ball game", something happened.

She tripped, and thanks to being somewhat corporeal, landed on the ground.

Muffled groaning could be heard from the small pile she had tripped on.

"Uh?"

Barely hesitating, the magician moved over the snow, before frantically digging inside. She soon found a small buttercup inside, quivering from the cold, wrapped up in his scarf.

\- ASRIEL! She screamed as she saw her brother almost unable to open his eyes.

\- C-chara, p-please… Don't… scream like that.

The sorceress immediately used her magic to force the withered grass to grow, encapsulating the flower and her inside a small igloo shape.

As the temperature of the inside slowly started to rise, the human made sure the prince would be okay.

\- I-it's alright, Azz. As long as I'm here, I w-won't let the cold get to you again. Geez, you're petals have frost on them, have you stayed under the snow all night?!

The monster slowly shook himself from the snow still covering part of his stalk, along his petals, brushing them together as if they were hands. Rapidly, the inside of the vegetal dome began to heat up even more, and before long it was once again at a comfortable temperature.

\- *Sigh* Thanks, sis, said the small creature.

\- What h-happened anyway, she asked back.

The monster frowned.

\- I recall preparing myself to go back with you, but it took only a few moments for the blizzard to catch me, and all I could do was trying to shield myself from the cold wind.

\- But it didn't helped much, I guess.

\- Y-yeah, it was so cold, and the snow had already began to accumulate around me. Soon, I found myself trapped under the weight of it, so badly that I could not even retreat underground, I was stuck to freeze there, in the dark.

At this thought, the flower visibly shivered, not from the cold, but from the fear he had then felt, being alone, all again.

Chara smiled softly at Asriel.

\- Then I guess it's a good thing I found you, right?

The flower nodded, before frowning again.

Chara frowned too as she saw her brother's mood perceptibly darken.

\- Is something wrong Azz?

The flower let out a sigh, before turning his face back upward, a preoccupied expression on it.

\- Maybe you found me, but we don't know where Frisk and Clovis might be, we need to find them…

There was a moment of silence before he spoke again.

\- And fast.

She immediately dispatched the dome above their head, Asriel shivering from the intense cold, the hot air that had built up inside the shelter going away in a clear, white mist.

The ghost then handed the old tome to the flower, who took it between too thin vines.

The earth having heat up sufficiently to be dug up, Chara plunged her semi-visible hands in the dirt, before, even if helped by a bit of magic, pushing it away. She forced the small roots of the smaller, barely surviving plants, to push up on it, making it compress somewhat, so she finally was able to hold up her brother.

\- C-chara?! What are you-

He couldn't finish his sentence before, as he still held the book firmly, his sister flew straight toward a specific place.

\- It's faster this way, she exclaimed.

"Someone is in need of help there", she worriedly thought.

[Back to the cabin]

Clovis and Frisk had woke up for barely a few seconds, when they already noticed something wrong.

Amanda was gone.

This realisation made the last of the sleep go away, as they madly searched all around the small construct of wood, they clothes barely able to warm them up, as the wind had, once again, rose up to blow in icy gusts over their freezing bodies.

\- D-dad, she is not near, she said as a green hue had disappeared around her shaking hands.

Clovis was surprised, why would the woman go this far from the habitation?

\- Are you s-sure?

\- A-as sure as I can be, I scanned f-for any lifeform around here, and even near the river, but there's n-nothing, she must b-be too far for me to detect her.

A powerful gust blew past them, forcing the two human to lift their hands up in front of their eyes, as snow started to fly past them.

\- Frisk, I t-think that maybe we should g-go back in, surely Amanda is safe, she c-can do good enough on her own.

At that, the wizard had pointed toward the small house.

However, his daughter would not let someone potentially in danger, out in such rough conditions.

"She will freeze to death, and he want to give up?! Then screw the discretion, if a someone want to stop me, they will regret it", she angrily thought, as she shook herself, before focusing.

The next moment, when he turned toward Frisk, all that the man could see was a flash of grey fur bolting toward the woods.

\- Wha?!

Clovis barely had enough time to let a shout out before he fell down on his back, right in the cold substance that soaked his clothes.

Grunting, the mage went back up on his feet.

\- Frisk, he whispered in disbelief.

But she was already too far away.

[Meanwhile with the siblings]

\- Chara, where are we going?

\- Someone is over there, she pointed in the direction they were flying.

\- What?! It's on the other side of the river! Nobody goes there!

"Not if it's a human", she reasoned for herself.

\- It was not only the wind, Azz, there was the sound of someone… someone sad.

The expression of the flower changed to one of uncertainty.

\- So…

\- So they need our help, now stop talking, I'll go as fast as I can.

Concentrating, she somehow managed to accelerate the already ridiculous speed they were going at, as she used all of her focus to not let her brother phase right through her hands.

One : Clovis would kill her for losing the book.

And two : Toriel would incinerate her for letting the prince fall to his death.

"God sometimes I hate my life."

[Back to Frisk]

Running as fast as she could, Frisk jumped over trunks that the storm had broke down, taking sharp turn whenever her ears picked up an abnormal sound in the otherwise calm forest.

"Please, be alright."

As she panted, her tongue lolling out as she decided to stop, Frisk took a moment to listen more closely to the sounds, eliminating them one by one.

The sound of her beating heart, and the loud panting as her canine body exhaled, making puffs of hot air condense in the cold one.

The sound of the wind, whistling between the firs and pines, the trees themselves rustling as their branches brushed their needle-like leaves together.

The snowflakes popping up against her fur as the heat made them crack weakly.

The sound of the nearby water as the frozen stream still run under the thick ice cover.

However, there was nothing more.

… Wait…

Was that…

She leaned slightly forward, trying to understand what was the sound that had made her ears perk up.

…

But was it really…?

Again, almost unnoticeable…

Yes, it was…

"I'm coming", the wolf thought as she bolted toward the direction of the nearly imperceptible breathing. Frisk had to slalom between the trunks, as the forest around her became more and more dense the farther she travelled. After a few minutes of this incessant race in the wood, however…

*Bam!*

Frisk rolled back from the sheer force of the collision, momentarily dazed.

On their side, the siblings were trying to understand why there was a wolf that collided with them.

Both parties looked at the other, the duo in confusion, the wolf in joy.

\- Chara! Asriel! Where were you?

If they were first surprised to hear the wolf speak in their friend's voice, they rapidly remembered about the fact that both father and daughter were shapeshifters.

The princess dropped the flower, who almost let go of the book, but managed to hold it above the snow. As he looked up, his face, as well as Chara's, was plastered with a wide smile as the three of them soon joined in a weird hug, given the act Frisk did not bothered to take back her human form.

\- Frisk, they both said in relief.

However, the moment was not made to last long.

A low moan, followed by a shivering of something, caught everyone's attention.

As they approached, they were surprised, and relieved on the wolf's part, to discover Amanda laying in the cold snow, her clothes damp from the amount of water that had made it wet.

\- Another human, whispered the ghost, how is it I've never seen her before?

\- She's been living on the opposite side of the river, so no one would find her.

As she had said that, Frisk once again changed, before taking the form of a bear, the fur staying the same grey, if only a bit lighter in shade, making it look like it was silver.

\- Lift her up on my back, I'll transport her, said their now bear friend.

Asriel handed the grimoire back to Chara.

\- Here, sis, take it back.

As she held it close to her, the prince had sprouted new vines, longer and sturdier then the thin pair he had used to hold the magic tome.

\- Here we go, he calmly said, let's do it smoothly.

The new green appendages gently took a firm grip on Amanda, lifting her up, before carefully depositing her on Frisk's back.

\- Near the river, in this direction, my father is in a cabin, meet us there, the ursine animal looked back at Chara, we have things to talk about.

The flower gave them a firm nod, before retreating back underground. Soon, he found the small habitation.

On the magicians' side, they had began the walk back to Amanda's house.

The girls were making their way in complete silence, if making exception of the wind, still whistling between the branches.

After a little while, Chara had enough of it.

\- Frisk, she asked, we don't know her, and I believe yourself don't know much on this woman.

\- Beside the fact that her name is Amanda Greyhound, is actually in her mid-forty, has magic and the yellow trait, I do know nothing more on her.

There was a moment of silence.

\- Even she acted in a cold manner toward us, she had enough kindness to propose us to stay at her place for the night.

The princess wasn't sure she understood.

\- So, is that why you wanted to save her? Is it because she had helped you and Clovis?

Her only answer was a long moment made of silence.

It stretched.

…

Still nothing.

…

Again, not a clue.

…

Finally.

\- No, whispered the bear.

Surprised, the sorceress looked back up at her friend.

\- No?

As smile had appeared on Frisk furry muzzle, before she answered back.

\- No, because that's how I see things, there's no need to be "friends" to care about the others. You can care about others without them even knowing you. You can care about someone simply because they are going through bad things, such as sickness, or the grieving of someone they lost.

At that, Chara's mood went down, but whatever she had thought of, it did not impacted on her for too long. She rapidly had a smile back, even if it was less noticeable.

\- So, what do you want to mean by saying this?

The bear only grinned further, before softly answering.

\- Whoever is in need of help, you must do your best. There is no need to hate someone, only because they've hurt you before. Think that they, too, had to go across events that made them this way. Everyone needs help, whether they accept this fact or not, we all do one day. So, one day, the same day I finally understood this, do you want to know the resolve I took then?

The ghost nodded, hooked to her friend's lips.

\- Eh, as silly as it sound, I took the resolve to help as much as I would be able to. To make the world as better as I could, before my time would come for me to leave said world, no mater if it would be in a week, or many decades later. That day, I decided… that I would never leave anyone in need of help alone…

A shadow obscured Frisk's gaze, as she somberly declared :

… that I would never leave anyone behind…

… Not anymore.

* * *

So, next is a big one, I swear, things are gonna go wild. I guess the only thing I can is to keep doing my best as I write these. I'm not generally too good with thanks and that kind of stuff, but thanks to anyone who has read this far, knowing that some people love this story (and my others) makes me really happy. Also, if anything bothers you with the story in itself, or just with how I write, the review box is there, as well as Private Messaging. Surely you've seen this said in lots of other stories, but still, any kind of reviews, good or bad, will be of help.

Now, I don't mean to sound too self-focused there, but I've never even thought I would get positive reviews (even less a **dozen**!) back when I started all of this madness that has become my stories.

Alright, expect another chapter soon this week (or the next, depending on how big it will be, and obviously, on my free time). Thanks again to everyone reading this, have all a wonderful day/night!


	19. Surprise!

So, I know I haven't done anything regarding "A New Tale" for a while, but since December might arrives quicker then it seems, I wanted to take a little time to get this to you, everyone. As the title say, here's a bonus chapter for the first anniversary of this story, which also mark the first year since I began writing. Eh, feels like it was long ago, amazing how time fly by fast sometimes, right?

Anyway, so here I'll show you all the amusing, weird, and wtf moments that took place behind the scenes. Breaking of the fourth wall, accidental death, funny but unwanted reactions, they're all here.

Let's do this!

* * *

Alright, remember the first time Clovis and Frisk met Toriel, well, I made an error, short, but funny how I reacted to it.

Blooper 1 : Author has zero skills when it comes to characters' names.

\- Hahaha… ho my, she said, getting the two mages tensed. I usually come here for two reasons. To see if any new human felled here and to be sure Aswey doesn't feel "BONE-*realizes I messed up like five seconds later*

Me : … *desperately smashes head on the keyboard and starts mumbling* Gosh darnit, I'm so stupid… *simply hold the delete button* Of course, Asriel and Flowey did a Dragonball fusion and now the name's Aswey! I'm *thud* such *thud* an *thud* IDIOT *heavy bang*

-bip-

Next one, remember that quarrel that took place between Asriel and Chara, the one about chocolate? Weeeeeellllllll…

Can't blame me for experimenting with this scene, right?

Blooper 2 : Never let Asriel argue with Chara ever AGAIN.

\- How it ended up in my library, I don't know, and I don't care.

\- C'mon, don't stop, I wanna hear more, pleaded his daughter.

Clovis agreed.

\- Alright, he began, so how about…

The man couldn't finish his sentence has two distinct screams erupted over where the flower and the ghost were talking.

\- HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! ! !

Vines suddenly erupted from around the ghost, while the flower summoned many pellets. Taken aback, both humans backed away from the imminent battle.

\- So you think we should stay out of it, asked Frisk.

\- At least it looks like it, replied her father.

Taking her hand, he got to the door, and despite the fact things really got loud once the battle began, both mages waited on the upper part of the room.

[Later.]

Frisk was starting to slowly drift toward sleep, when she noticed something that made her head snap back up.

The sound had stopped.

Carefully, the girl used her blue magic to float down to the ground below, and found something shocking.

A little pile of reddish dust, with a knife standing through, was near a buttercup…

Me : Okay that's enough bullshit for now, can't have that happen, I need these two clowns to have a good ending. *sigh* Why did I somehow gave them a mind of their own again? Oh, yes, so the story would not be as boring as me deciding everything…

FML…

-bip-

Uh… just so you know, Gaster was bit much of a creep that only time I allowed him to break the fourth wall.

Blooper 3 : GASTER STOP IT'S FREAKY!

"You are a smart one, I see. The skeleton liked her already, she acted just like him when he started to work in science-not completely tho" (of freakin course he was going to interrupt me)

*Appears out of nowhere in the chapter* Damn it Gaster, you know you can't go and just… you know, obliterate the fourth wall like this, that's like cheating!

\- Well, you never specified it when you created my personality.

It's just because you are often depicted with that ability, I didn't intend to!

\- Well it is too late.

\- Uuuuh, what is going on?

Both : Not now Frisk!

\- Alright alright, gee you're both so nervous. By the way what's your name?

Not something you should know, nor remember next time.

\- Okay…? Then if you want to talk I'll be over there, in my solitary little corner of Void, bye.

\- Great, now she's pouting, how shall I explain the problem now!?

Maybe if you kept silent about being able to do… to do this!

\- Oh come on, it's not like you ignored I could.

Well, then maybe you should've just kept the reveal for later, like maybe the epilogue, you know like walk in in the last AN of the story and be like "hello people behind your screens reading this dumb try at being both funny and interesting, the author would've liked to address you all, but there's a problem-"

\- I get it, you're pissed off, but now the damage is done, so what do we do about it, not like I don't know the story plot too, like about Amanda-

Oh now you bring the spoilers in, that is totally unfair!

\- And Joe, how you plan to make a second war because of the-

You know that's a very, VERY low kick at this point.

\- Oh I do, like the low kick that is leaving Asriel with only a l-

Oh my god you just won't shut up do you?

\- No, also maybe it's worth noting the fact that you are totally sick of replacing Am-

HEY, THAT'S TOO BIG OF A SPOILER, SHUT UP! ! !

\- With _her_ , or the thing about the fact _she_ herself will walk into h-

Oooooooh you, my dear, are playing with fire now.

\- Pfff, like the one that was caused by Amanda's mother's Unleashing of magic? Of course, of course, you know that as long as I want I can try to spoil the whole thing, right? For example, there ar-

Don't.

\- In Waterfall, one hid at-

You.

\- 's place too, and that they all-

Dare.

\- Dare what? Say how all of them are important to the good ending? Like how Frisk, Clovis, Amanda, Asriel, Toriel, Chara, me, Sans, Sa-

Well you dun goofed up now skeleman.

\- Your memes have no power here, idiot.

Hey, I'm not the one spoiling everything! Or at least trying, thank god I can write over you when you try to spoil the plot, asshole.

\- At least I am not the one writing all this down… dumbass.

… Uh.

\- Seriously, you just noticed?

… I hate you…

\- Thanks.

No, seriously, I sincerely hate you right now.

\- You do are aware of the fact someone will eventually read this if you don't do something about it, don't you?

YES I AM VERY AWARE OF THAT THANKS FOR REMINDING ME YOU NUMBSKULL! ! ! ! !

\- As much as I don't like the idea, why don't you simply erase all this scene?

… *facepalm* Are you kidding me…

\- No I am-

I wasn't addressing to you, Gaster. Alright, I've had enough of this shit, I'm outta here!

\- Bye.

Don't talk to me! *disappear*

\- Uh… a bit too on the nerves to my tastes, this author. *chuckles* Oh well, at least he was fun to mess with…

*angrily and repeatedly smashes the delete button*

 **-BIP-**

Okay that last one was just… I hate him…

So, that was about as much as what happened, the rest would've been simple typos, and those are not funny, just annoying. In short, there was these three bloopers, but hey, at least it's something, right?

In all seriousness, (that's for the ones that can't take a joke correctly) for the third one, I am in no way mentally unstable, I am perfectly sane and knows the difference between reality and fiction. Just that having to give characters their own personality sometimes goes too far, and they nearly act like a separate entity from their creator, which, at the same time, is kind of the goal of making a character's personality, but giving them a level of sentience like the Gaster of this story… I will have to classify this as one of my poorest life decisions… definitely will have to, this guy nearly ruined the story.

Okay enough craziness, that was all for this special chapter.

So, now that said chapter is done, I would like to say that I have not abandoned this story, it's just that I lost most of my inspiration for it. In fact, most of my stories that dates of around "The cursed deal", which is the second story I've made (this time for Gravity Falls, so some of you UT fans out there may not now it), I found to have a really low level of interest towards them. However, I will never let them die, one day, all of them will be finished products, and be sure it will happen.

So, I have been taking a break from writing, but I really wanted to do this now, before it is too late. I hope you enjoyed, and if you wonder which stories are in top priority, just go on my profile, I listed all of them there, and actually the state of which story I am working on might be the only thing still up to date on the page…

Who knows, maybe you'll find another of my stories, or maybe one of my favs interesting enough to read? Seriously, if you're bored and want something good to read, go see my favs, there's not much, but the quality is present for the majority of them, these people are so much better then me I'm actually like "lol I'm so bad in comparison XD" seriously, the difference of quality between these and my stories is just ridiculous to the point it looks like a bad joke, hahaha.

So, just to anyone that might have questions, I began to do this in some of my stories, and I decided I'll do this here too. I'll begin to answer reviews next chapter (or the one following the next, depends on if I finish it before. **A few days before the upload** : I'll answer reviews in chapter 19 cuz I finished chapter 18 already).

Okay, that was all, I hope you enjoyed the story so far. I have big plans, honestly the only thing I miss is inspiration and motivation. In the meanwhile, I have things to do, bye.

*takes out a rocket launcher* … What? It's not for Gaster, honest, I won't hurt him or anything, so uh… what are you even still there for? Go. Come on. There's nothing to see. I'll be doing my things and you do yours, alright?

*Barely after leaving, you can hear a loud "boom" followed by "WHAT THE F*** YOOOOOUUUUU". You are quite certain of who that was.*


	20. Chapter 18 - Recovery

**NT's first anniversary, and we're far from over, but it's already been so much, so much done, so much said, thanks to every each of you who read my stories and who still reads them, it mean everything to me, thank you so much!**

 **Disclaimer following the blooper chapter : I ain't crazy, just weird.**

Ok, maybe you should get the popcorn ready while you're reading this, I doubt anyone will read this under 15 minutes, that's for sure.

Also no, I wasn't dead, just working on many stories at the same time…

Didn't went as well as planned tho.

Hope you enjoy this 10k words monster of a chapter.

Warning, heavy PoV switch at the start.

Ps : Just so you know, Sans only know Asriel as Flowey, or weed, or any other names like that, which will be used when they are close to each other, just wanted to say it so nobody's confused. Also, since many parts of the narrations leans in towards Sans' pov, "it" will be used frequently to design Asriel, since our dear skeleton never learnt what gender the flower is.

* * *

Snow crunched under his slippers, as he walked away, lost in his thoughts.

"I never noticed, but haven't I already heard her voice?"

He stopped when a tall object suddenly casted a shadow over him.

"… Years ago?"

Looking up, he saw it.

The door.

Sans grinned, for this few moments were the rare time he did not had to keep his façade up. It was almost his only remaining time where he could be true. He and the lady never hid things, but still respected each other's privacy.

However, now he was firmly decided to get to know her truly.

At worse, he would get a scolding and nothing more.

Or he would just not have the time to ask her.

Whatever, he could always try another time.

Taking a deep breath, his lights glowing once again in the two holes, Sans waited a minute before discerning another person's breathing.

"Looks like she's been early today", and he smiled at the thought.

The skeleton knocked on the door.

\- knock knock, he said, unable to supress the feeling of joy welling up inside his ribcage.

\- Eh, who is it, asked a female voice.

Sans grinned even more, before having to supress a loud snort.

\- snow.

[On the other side.]

Toriel felt like she had not yet heard this one, this was definitely lightening up her day. So far, she had handled pretty well the fact of staying there after the group had departed from the Ruins. However, she still felt hurt, like something had been ripped from her…

Again.

Nonetheless, she eagerly awaited the answer as she replied almost in a childish tone.

\- Snow who?

\- oh, there' **s now** thing to discuss, talk about a **chilly** day.

She snorted in surprise, and the young monster was the one to burst into laughter on the other side.

\- oh my god, lady. i can't believe it, hahahahaha. sorry, i was just not prepared to hear you make a sound like… that!

\- Eh eh, she giggled, now now, don't be sorry, it's just that, knowing Snowdin's on the other side, it make the whole thing even funnier.

[Back to Sans.]

The barely adult monster had to take a moment before saying to the voice he was ready.

\- ok, ok. your turn, old lady.

He couldn't help but chuckle when he mentally replayed the sound of her snorting, he never heard anyone making such a weird noise.

\- Knock knock, said the muffled voice of the monster.

\- who's there?

\- Butter. *muffled giggles*

Sans raised an eyebrow, curious about this new joke, the lady had really stepped up her game.

\- butter who?

\- Oh come on, you know **butter** than that!

He couldn't help but counter with his owns.

\- wow, lady, **dishes** a pretty **clover** joke. but please **chives** down on the **grease** puns, these are **slippery**.

[On Toriel's side.]

Toriel had been laughing with the monster, but when he had countered with a few more, she narrowed her eyes, the deep dark brown catching light in a way that gave her expression an even more childish look.

"Oh he's done it, he's finally done it. Well, let's start the war of puns."

\- Eh, she replied, well, my dear, with all that ice, you should be the one weary to not **slip up** on something.

\- wow, this one may not had been too ori **gin** al, but believe me when i say it lifted my **spirits**. however, if i were you, i would a **vodka** making these too often, unless you wish to **hang over** here with me.

"Alchohol puns?! Oh my, if he goes on like this I may lose!"

\- Well, don't do anything like the stairs in my house.

She got how confused he was when he asked why, before she answered.

\- Because they're always **UP** to something.

[Back to the skeleton.]

"ohoh, so she wants to play it in freestyle… she's going to be sorry."

\- eh, in my case mines have the bad habit of taking me for a **trip** that always get me **down**.

The skeleton picked up the amused "Pffff" the woman made.

\- what, can't you **sea** there's definitely something **fishy** with these, he added.

She almost lost it at the last one, but regained her composure, and attacked back.

\- Stop as **sail** ing me with those, just **water** you planning to do by continuing. Explore the aquatic field a bit more in **depth** with me?

"HAAAAA I'm starting to run out of fish jokes, quick sans, what subject can you-OH!"

\- ah ah, very **puny** , but you know, it's better with classics, these are always so much more **humerus**. i **mustard** , if you hope to **ketchup** on the variety **field** , you'll **bee** very **buzzy** trying to see through **meep**. i mean, no one masters the art of **baaah** d puns like me.

[How things were on the other side.]

Toriel had tried, she really did, but the ten puns in a row simply finished her off, she couldn't hold it back any longer.

She completely lost it.

\- HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! OH DEAR GOD I CAN'T! *wheeze* I can't breath for god's sake. You win.

The other monster wasn't doing better himself, she could hear him laughing too, but lower.

\- *snort* oh my god, lady, i swear you really asked for it, i had almost no more puns.

She got up, tears rolling down her cheeks from having laughed this much.

\- My my, I can't say I am not impressed, you almost got me here and there. But you had to pull a fatality pun edition to end me, gosh I wasn't prepared for that.

\- yeah…

There was a moment of silence before…

\- oh no it's well past the time my bro normally come to see if i'm sleeping on duty or not, c'mon, saying i again forgot to change the hour, the only day i actually bring my watch!

Toriel looked worriedly towards the door.

\- Hey, don't worry, your brother will surely think you're just patrolling around for once.

The other one sighed.

\- uh… surely, but i still have to hurry, i'll see you tomorrow.

With that she heard him starting to leave, the snow crunching under his feet. However, she had other plans for the coming day.

Toriel immediately knocked forcefully on the door, and the sound of footsteps came to an halt, before they came closer.

\- is something the matter, miss?

\- Actually, I have things I must attend to tomorrow, so I won't be there, she explained. Is it okay with you?

[Back to Sans' side]

The skeleton stood there, a bit shocked by these strange news. Still, he quickly came back in the present when she asked once more.

\- Is it okay with you, for tomorrow?

He blinked, a thing he always had found strange for monsters like him to do, but answered back anyway.

\- oh, yes, it will be alright, thanks for telling me about it. would you like to ask me anything more before i go?

Waiting a moment, the skeleton was able to hear the person behind the door taking a deep breath, before she posed a strange question.

\- You… said your name is "Sans", right?

\- why yes, what is wrong?

\- Oh, nothing, just, you never told me your whole name.

A moment of silence hanged between them.

\- Would you mind… telling me you full name, please?

"…"

"Eh, why not, I should as well tell it to her now she asked."

Sans swallowed, the sound barely noticeable, before he told her.

\- Serif… my real name is Sans Serif.

\- …

\- … lady?

\- … It's… a nice name.

\- uh, thanks, i guess. anyway, i should really go back to meet my brother, so, have a nice day, miss.

Finally, Sans left, leaving Toriel profoundly shaken.

"It's really him", she thought.

Another moment passed.

\- Eh..., she smiled, both in happiness and nostalgia.

"I always had wondered where you had gone to, my little Sansy."

The monster went back upstairs, lost in thoughts.

"My little scientist bookworm… Next time I'll tell him."

Now sure of what she had to do, Toriel went to her room. There were some things she had to take with her before going.

"Hmmm, maybe I should dig back up the old school of the Ruins."

[Back to Sans]

The monster was already in view of his sentry station, when suddenly, he heard voices.

\- You think she'll make it, asked a voice he had never heard before.

Another voice, more familiar this time, answered.

\- Surely, her state doesn't seems like she's near death, more like it's just the start of hypothermia.

\- Argh, damnit it, Frisk, don't you see? She is literally turning into a bicycle as we speak! How far is this damn cabin you talked about anyway?

"Waitaminute", Sans tried to understand what he just heard, before his brain just went off in panic.

"FRISK?! Omgomgomg the lady's gonna kill me if anything happens… sorry Paps, I'll meet you later."

A flicker of his left eye later, the skeleton was next to a really surprising scene.

[What happened to the girls.]

Frisk, still in her bear form, felt the woman on her back shudder, inaudible mumbles passing through her lips, dying in the wind without a chance of being heard.

She looked at Amanda, only to see the human had unconsciously curled up on herself, shivering. Whatever seemed to be tormenting the poor woman, it was very bad.

\- Nah, you're right, but she seemed barely cold when we found her.

Chara's brows lowered into a frown, before she answered.

\- It's the magic, it has imbued nearly everything in the underground.

\- Wait, Frisk lowered her head to look at her friend, you mean even the environment? How can it be possible?

Simple shrug from the ghost.

\- I am not sure, but as it did for the times of peace, where the magic emanating from the monsters unlocked humanity's own potential at it, I guess it's like a natural leak from all monsters.

Suddenly, a voice that Frisk was more and more familiar with was heard, addressed to the princess.

\- uh, should've known, ghost monsters, human ghosts, what next? we all become ghosts and party forever? actually sounds like a good plan, where do i si-WHOAH! ! !

\- SANS, Frisk exclaimed, before giving the short skeleton a light tap, or at least she thought it was a light tap until it sent him crashing down face first in the snow.

Chara's brain simply stopped working, she was perfectly immobile.

"What… just happened right now", she asked herself.

Finally, as Frisk was trying to not dislodge every bones of the skeleton by accident as she did her best to get Sans out of the snow, the ghost managed to realign two thoughts together, nearly screaming.

\- Frisk what the heck?!

\- Sorry, I forgot I wasn't still in my human form, grunted the bear as she took a tibia and pulled, paws planted firmly on a more solid layer of ice and snow.

\- Of coursh I haf to sen him in te only deef file of fnow, she mumbled as more and more of the monster appeared out of the snow.

Sans was alright though, so that was already a good thing.

\- Thank god you pulled me out of there bucko, i wouldn't have been able to **bear** this kind of weight much longer.

\- Okay, declared the princess, I CLEARLY missed an episode, so what happened while I was scurrying back and forth the region like a mommy duck who had lost her babies? ! ?

Frisk and Sans exchanged a glance, amusement shining in their eyes, before the skeleton's slid upward…

\- WHAT IN THE NAME OF ASGORE?!

\- SHHHHHHHH, both girls shushed him as Amanda mumbled a bit higher as she steered in her cold induced comatose state.

\- sorry, he said much less stronger this time.

Sans then turned to the first thing that had caught his attention.

\- wait, i feel i have seen someone like you before… it can't be, i've never seen a human like you…

His eyesockets made a frowning expression as the light inside of them dimmed considerably, reduced to two thin, nearly inexistent pinpricks of lights.

As he stood there, motionless in front of the wizards, both Chara and Frisk shot the other a look transmitting all the weirdness of the situation.

Finally, as it looked like he would fall asleep right there, the monster nearly let his words out in a scream before he quickly suppressed the want to yell something in the likes of "Eureka!".

\- you're Chara, Chara Dreemurr, he instead whispered, his sentence getting a desperate whimper out of the ghost.

\- At this rate, I might as well announce all the underground that I'm back, wouldn't surprise me if dad then decided to punish me because of my stupid plan for the rest of my apparent eternity.

Now it was Sans who had missed an episode.

\- plan? what plan?

Frisk resumed quickly.

\- She committed suicide using buttercups and with the prince they tried to cross the barrier once he took her Soul to gather six more, but then villagers killed them, they turn to dust, she becomes a ghost because why not and nothing down here makes sense, you king declares war to humanity, poop hit the fan at light speed and now… uh… well, I'll keep it at the part where poop hit the fan.

Silence was the last thing the girl expected from the skeleton, before Chara stepped in.

\- Uh, Frisk? I think that our friend is still here physically, but to me it feels like his mind might be out there in space.

Sans' expression was very unusual for someone as chill as him. Both eye lights gone completely, his grin wiped off and left with a closed but low hanging jaw, eyesockets in perfect circles, slightly hunched backward, if he had a human body, all blood would've drained from his face.

"That's like soooo weird", thought the ghost, slightly creeped out by this.

The bear was beginning to be a little concerned, as the monster had been this way for at least two minutes already.

\- Uh… Sans, she asked.

At last, the skeleton blinked off his shocked state as she spoke, both lights back and at normal size, even if maybe slightly bigger, and the smile, if expressing uncertainty, plastered once more on his face.

Scratching the back of his head as he looked away in embarrassment, Sans chuckled nervously.

\- whe-he-hell, hadn't seen THAT one coming… the princess, nothing less then the princess, can't say i'm not a little freaked out right now, but hey, it' **s now** problem, i'm a **chill** guy, y'know…

He couldn't had chosen a worse time for puns, as nobody laughed.

Looking down has his grin looked like someone had flipped it upside down, Sans took the initiative of looking right at the magicians, serious.

\- Look, I won't tell anyone, your secret is safe with me, he said, before he came back to 0% seriousness, 's it oki doki with ya two buckos?

In a moment's notice, the princess's expression became frozen in a suspicious, yet resolved and scary mask Frisk had never seen her make at anyone before.

Still not ready to thrust this quirky skeleton, Chara made it clear that he better be not lying.

\- As long as you don't reveal our presence to the others, it's okay with me, but if you dare tell anyone…

Her voice lowered as a menacing tone slipped inside, cold and vicious.

In the blink of an eye, giant, thorny vines with said thorns sporting needle like tips, all turned toward Sans appeared, without even making the ground rumble despite their size.

\- If you dare hurt any of these humans, despite how much I'd hate having to do it to any monster, I will chase you, and be sure I will find you.

Near physical venom began to, almost audibly, drip from her words.

\- And I assure you, she finished as her voice kept lowering until it was nothing more than a whisper, that I will make your death absolutely painful and as long as possible before you turn to dust, was I clear enough?

Shocked to see this murderous, emotionless side of her friend, Frisk stood there in silence, more immobile than any statue could be.

Why was there such animosity from her towards Sans?!

Sans, however, changed yet again of expression. His eyes became hollow again, invisibles brows making his eyesockets frown, as his grin dropped completely and turned to a strange grimace, transmitting both surprise and resignation.

Suddenly, time seemed to stop, and the world to darken, only a circle of light containing both ghost and monster remained before Sans spoke.

As he spoke, it felt like someone else was saying the words for him.

\- _You do not need to threaten me, human. I have orders and rules to respect. Never will I harm you or another under any circumstance, but know this…_

His left eye lit up with a bright yellow light, which rapidly turned to a cold, blue flame.

\- _I will tolerate no hostile behavior under this mountain. So if I ever find would it be only a speck of dust on you, know that, princess or human, your status will not matter. You will be judged, and punished accordingly. I will make sure that wherever you here, whenever it is, justice, will find its way, and I'll be the Damocles' sword that will cut trough your lies and your life, did I made it clear, "Dreemurr"?_

Both of them just eyed the other for what felt like a long time.

However, after a while, Chara simply grunted and looked to the ground.

\- I guess it's the best I will get from you, uh?

\- Oh, you have no idea, bucko, replied the skeleton, a smug grin making it's way back, while his right eye light reappeared, leaving the left one a flaming blue.

She couldn't help but retort.

\- Don't you talk to me as if I was a child, I am decades older than you, even if I do not look like it.

He only shrugged, his second eye returning to a white dot as his normal grin returned.

\- yeah yeah, whatever ya want…

Chara was looking at him with near murderous intent.

\- kiddo.

Time began to flow back and the vines, instead of lashing at Sans, retreated as the princess bolted at the skeleton, who seemed amused.

\- OH MY GOD LEMME AT HIM! ! !

However, she suddenly saw that something was pulling her back as the monster burst in laughter.

\- I don't know what happened, but stop now, Chara, you're going to hurt him, said Frisk, having used her magic to hold her in place.

But she would not listen.

\- HE CALLED ME A CHILD, I'M GOING TO DISMEMBER HIM AND LET SNOWDIN'S GUARDS CHEW ON HIS BONES, HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

The exclamations marks were far over the infinity cap.

The bear just exchanged a glance with the skeleton in question who had just calmed down.

\- What the…, asked the sorceress, confused.

\- meh, not worth explaining, kid.

\- Sans, she said, not the least amused, the moment before she was ready to bury you under vines the diameter of a tree, the next she is running at you like a madman saying you called her a child, what just happened?

He looked away, still smiling.

\- nnnnnnnnnnnothing there bucko, she just lost her **cool** and i really thought i was going to **freeze** over.

\- I'M GONNA MAKE YOU PAY FOR THESE PUNS, yelled the ghost.

\- CHARA NO, pleaded the mage.

\- CHARA YES, she answered as she made her creepy face, a black liquid beginning to dribble from her eyes and mouth.

Both Frisk and Sans were looking shocked and disgusted.

\- WHATHEFUCK! ? ! ? !

In shock, the girl lost her control and the blue light around the ghost vanished, letting her bolt like a bullet in the monster's direction.

Frisk was panicking…

Until the skeleton simply stepped aside, letting Chara collide with a tree at full speed, the ectoplasm partly composing her body making a *splat* as she flattened on the trunk.

At least the impact managed to calm, well, actually more daze her then calm her down.

The bear looked back at Amanda, who was still sleeping somehow, and back at her friend.

\- Sans, she whispered, what in the actual heck? ? ?

He looked away.

\- maybe you spaced out for a moment.

She looked at him suspiciously, before dropping the subject.

\- Whatever, you were doing something before you decided to make us jump out of our skin?

The monster rolled his eyes, sighing.

\- eh, nah, just patrolling around for once, trying to find some things forgotten by monsters here and there, but nadda, nothin' today.

He then glanced back to the woman on her back.

\- sooo, he asked, mind explaining good ol' me what just happened after i left?

Frisk sighed.

\- She helped me and dad last night, got us to her home, and this morning, she was missing, so we searched, but well… dad gave up. I finally found her and Chara found me at the same time, so it was all rainbows and unicorns until we, one : found her freezing to death, and two : you two had your little conversation.

\- yeah, he excused, sorry 'bout that, wasn' plannin' to cause a rukus there.

Sans then seemed to register the last sentence.

\- wait, he asked, an invisible eyebrow raising and lowering on an eyesocket, the second keeping round like a donut, did you said… "rainbows and unicorns"? ? ?

\- Uh… yeah, why?

He looked away, still smiling, even if said smile was duller.

\- oh, uh, nothing, ya know, just found weird you said this, not everything's so happy down there, you know that already, don't you?

She shifted her… considerable mass uncomfortably.

\- Well, yeah, I've noticed, she glared awkwardly at the ground.

To ease the atmosphere, the sorceress decided to ask the skeleton something.

\- Anyway, why where you two so aggressive to each other only minutes ago?

The monster cocked his head to the side, as if he hadn't understood.

\- hmmm? what? nothing, was just a misunderstanding, but hey, things are fine now, right?

Frisk looked back at Chara, who tried phasing through the tree, with a definitely more than questionable amount of success.

Rolling her eyes, she padded toward the struggling ghost.

\- Hey, you okay there?

The phantom's head popped out, glaring angrily at the monster, before she faced the bear.

\- Out of all the times, it is now you ask me, really?

"Ooooookay, she's still mad as hell", anxiously thought the mage.

With an uneasy smile, she grabbed her still semi-physical friend with a paw and pulled her out without having to exert much force.

With yet another *splat* the pancake of ghost glue that was now Chara flattened on the snow.

At that moment, the princess decided of three things.

One : being partially made of magic sucked.

Two : she was STILL going to make that skeleton sorry for making her mad.

And three : maybe she did react a bit too strongly, but he really asked for it!

With a grunt, she pushed back against the ground, and immediately realized something that should've been in her hands.

Without a shadow of a doubt, a very loud alarm turned on inside of her head.

\- SHIT! ! !

\- what's all that sound about, princess, asked the short monster with a look of mischief, lost something?

With that, he pulled out of his supposedly too small pocket, nothing less then the Book of Zaryl.

\- being lazy doesn't mean i can't recognize valuable items when i see em, you should bee more careful, it could've gotten as **mushy** as you, eh.

With a sound that was disturbingly close to a growl, the ghost snatched back the magic tome from the other's hand, shooting him a venomous gaze.

\- I swear, I don't know how, when and where, but I will get you back for that.

Sans only shrugged, rolling his eyes.

\- yeah yeah, the old grudge thingy, 's fine, really.

He looked surprised at Chara.

\- though, i'd ask you just DON'T, like, never, make that weird melty facy thingy thing of yours again, kay?

\- Don't worry, I swear I will reserve it just for you, she cooed in a mocking manner.

\- Can we go already?! Or do we wait here until a second Soul falls into the king's grasp, suddenly exploded Frisk, annoyed at the bad reactions they had towards each other already.

Sans simply raised an eyebrow, while the princes looked at the ground, slowly reddening in both surprise and shame.

\- okay, i'm curious to now where you're heading anyway, said the short skeleton.

\- I forgot we had to help her, sorry, apologized the ghost at the same time.

\- Then what are we still there for? Let's get going, the quicker we get to the cabin, the better Amanda will be, and the quicker I'll be able to know why you two seems to instinctively hate each other.

She caught the surprised look of both her friends.

\- What? As if the scene that I just witnessed wasn't enough of a clue. Come on, I really can't wait to get there.

With that she looked to the forest before her, and began the small journey back to the house.

"Amanda will need to expand the size of the place once she's back on her feet."

[Later.]

The trio had walked in complete silence.

Well, except Chara who had to be shushed when she began cursing the monster aloud, thankfully only heard of the shapeshifter in front of her.

Sans was wondering what he just got himself into.

Chara was killing the time by imagining every different ways she could make him pay without Gaster getting mad.

Frisk was lost in her thoughts, elaborating theories as of what could've pushed someone like the unconscious woman on her back to lose herself in the forest, and in such cold temperatures.

She was still thinking when her nose picked up a faint smell : smoke.

They were getting closer.

\- This way, she said.

Her companions snapped out of their contemplative state, and barely nodded.

For a few minutes, nothing disturbed the silence, until she asked.

\- So, how do you think she will react when she will realize two monsters will be in her house?

Two exclamation shot through Chara and Sans' mouths.

\- two monsters?

\- Don't tell he-

\- Oh would you shut it Chara? I get it, you don't like Sans one bit, but for heaven's sake stop bringing that up!

She then turned slightly to the monster.

\- And yes, two monsters, because there's someone more, and him and you have to give me and dad, as well as Chara, some answers. Don't believe I missed that weird glance you shot A-Flowey when we first met. My father might be easy to fool and discourage, but not me.

He suddenly looked anxious, sweat beginning to appear on his forehead.

\- me, fooling someone? uh…

That's when the judge knew…

He dun goofed up.

"Shit… Asgore's gonna kill me if Paps don't first…"

He was literally risking the only job he could take seriously by staying next to the humans.

At the same time, he made a promise to the lady at the Ruins' door.

And a promise meant everything with Sans.

"So be it", he thought.

He had to tell, if not the truth, at least a part of it.

He set up for excluding anything about past timelines.

\- well, that "friend" of yours, i've seen it.

\- Ever followed him?

\- yeah, strangely, the flower has an habit of travelling to hotland, more precisely, to the royal scientist's lab.

Chara nearly yelled.

\- That's impossible! As-uh, she quickly corrected her sentence, Flowey would burn alive!

\- then, just so you two think, why would such a vulnerable monster get through the task of travelling in the underground up to there?

As much as they tried, both girls couldn't come up with a good reason, there was always a major flaw.

"Why would Azz?"

Was he really the Asriel she knew before? Was it only an act?

…

No, something just wouldn't stick right through this.

For Frisk, this lead her to a surprising conclusion, silly even.

"If he dare get there despite the danger, does that mean…"

She smiled, amused at how surreal this could be if it was true.

However, her smile faded seconds later.

"Nah, he can't be working there, there's something I overlooked."

Sans spoke again.

\- honestly, do you think he will willingly tell you why he goes there every once in a while?

The mages barely had to look in each other's eyes to know the answer.

Which fell kinda flat.

\- No, they both said.

Nod from the sentry, who advanced closer, to the point Chara had to speed up, ending with the short monster walking between the girls. They stayed silent for a moment each, before Frisk spoke up.

\- Hey Chara, she called the ghost.

\- Yes, what is it, she asked.

\- Hmmm, the bear looked uncomfortable, I thought about earlier back in the woods, when you, uh, kind of turned into a puddle on that tree.

She stopped right there, turning the sentence back times and times again in her head, thinking about how bizarre she just might've sounded to any normal person. Chara still understood what she meant, and agreed, feeling the question behind the unwanted pause.

\- Go on, what were you wanting to ask me?

\- You know, until Napstablook showed you how to do it, whenever you didn't paid attention, your body phased in and out of objects, without leaving a trace.

\- I know, I'm somewhat made of magic, so obviously I don't make a mess.

\- No, Frisk shouted, afraid that her friend had caught the wrong meaning of her words, I meant, isn't it weird that back at this moment, when you hit the trunk, you did not phased normally? Stranger fact, you even began to make noise of liquid and suction while you tried to pass through.

The ghost looked shocked, for she did not noticed that her phasing had been noisy.

\- What? I never made a sound by passing through things before!

The bear lowered her head, her clear but deep malachite eyes staring gravely inside the princess' simmering mix of ruby red and muddy brown, before she turned away, sighing.

\- I don't know why, but it seems that as time passes, you gain more and more physical abilities. Why, I really have no idea, trust me on this one, if I had any idea, even as crazy as it could be, I would've shared it.

She retained herself from grimacing from the fact she couldn't help.

However, Sans had been listening the whole time, and grinned as an old lesson of Gaster came back to him.

\- hey, girls, i have an idea here.

\- Uh, both mumbled.

As they turned around, Sans examined the faint outline of Chara's silhouette, a wavering red thing that encapsulated the frame of her body, making her look like something out of a drawing.

"Maybe, just maybe…", began to think the young skeleton.

\- uh, he began, not sure how this would go, can you two summon your Souls?

\- So you can snatch them right off?

\- CHARA FOR GOD'S SAKE STOP! ! !

The only sound that came back was a muffled mumble.

Before she turned around, Frisk had seen the cabin, but getting answers was far more important, and Amanda could hold on a few more minutes, right?

Chara only looked at her friend, before turning back to Sans.

When she looked back at the skeleton, she could see him looking pleadingly at her.

\- please?

She sighed.

"Urgh, I guess for this time… I can let it slip", did she thought.

As both Souls appeared, Sans let out a whistle of amazement.

\- wow, two identical traits…

He switched to serious mode.

\- Don't. Move. I will examine them.

As the girls stood silently on place, he summoned his magic, the familiar yellow flash leaving the blue flame behind. Shaping his power in a small tendril, he lightly poked Frisk's Soul, then tried entering.

Alas, not everything could be as simple as that.

All of a sudden, an invisible force knocked the tentacle away. At first, Sans showed his surprise, before frowning, the resistance wasn't from the human. He even had felt her own magic reach out towards his. The blockage was coming from the outside, that, was clear.

The question was from where did it originated?

"And thinking this began as such an amazing day", the monster thought.

Like every time he was near such amount of Determination, flashes from earlier timelines came to him.

 _He was in the hall, and in front of him was an unrooted, nearly dismembered and shivering buttercup._

" _I won't repeat myself, weed," he said as he took hold of the stem, "Reset," he suddenly shook the monster, "NOW! ! !"_

 _He focused on the trembling plant, barely acknowledging the existence of all the broken tiles, piles of bones, sharp and dull, blue and white, his family's trusted pets, which he had renamed the Gaster Blasters in honor of his dad. Even if each separately had a name, he called them by their generic definition, which made battling with them easier. Most of them were panting, their magic nearly out, the blue ball of energy nothing more then a light shock when fired, but to the point the flower was, it would still be enough to end it._

" _P-please," said Flowey, "d-don't… don't kill me."_

" _Then why did you not simply fled when I attacked? And why did you had to kill the king?!"_

 _Under the harsh tone, tears began to form, much to the skeleton's surprise._

" _I… I had no choice, you couldn't un-understand," sobbed the plant, "HE could not, e… even when… when I… when I-I…"_

 _The plant was unable to end its sentence before breaking down into little more then a golden cluster of trembling petals, hiccups making its body shake in the hands of the judge, who couldn't help but soften his grip on the monster, finding himself sympathizing for whatever the little monster had to go through before._

" _Please," he tried, taking a new approach, "Reset. If.. if Asgore stays dead, what's left of the council will vanish, and soon, what little is still left of the capital's society will crumble too, before the news reach to the entrance of Mt. Ebott."_

 _As he closed his mouth, he found it dry, but not really, more like instead of moistening his mouth, his saliva dried it._

 _At first, nothing came out of the weed, until it had stopped crying completely, and it remained there, motionless._

" _Release me first," said the plant in a voice he did not knew to it, like it wasn't the same person._

 _As he stood there, wondering what would be the right thing to do, he felt something going on inside the monster's Soul… If it could still be called that._

 _A constantly moving cloud of dust formed before him, rearranging in a fragmented, cracked and battered Soul, nearly entirely transparent, some white spots growing out of the border towards the inside, which became red when it did so, branching out like blood vessels, before the red spread to the thing, which went back to dust. Every beat of it's heart, of it's Soul, a new "tree" formed, dissipating with the next._

 _It was truly a disheartening show._

" _What," began the skeleton._

 _He was suddenly cut off._

" _I can't endure it anymore," said the flower, "each timeline, I believe, I want it to be true, that my Soul is back."_

 _It lifted its head, a look of horror, sadness and… something on it._

 _After a few moment, Sans realized what it was, as he saw himself in its eyes, with wide eyes, the light pulsating in a hectic manner._

 _Pain, true, pure and simple pain, the pain only someone who had suffered all their life could express._

 _Somehow, the judge felt both his heart AND Soul sink down in his ribcage._

 _The monster continued._

" _But, I always am on borrowed time, sometimes more, sometimes less."_

 _Its expression changed…_

 _It was resigned, surrendering to its inevitable fate._

" _My… Soul, is completely unstable, slowly breaking apart."_

 _The monster looked away, disgusted by itself._

" _And the end product never change in the slightest, no matter what I do," the weed murmured._

" _Was that why," thought the skeleton._

 _With a long sigh, Sans finally put the flower back on the ground._

" _Just Reset already, every timeline is harder to bare than the last, and honestly, if I can sympathize with you, I can't give you the human Souls, it would be wasting every life in the Underground for one."_

 _He couldn't believe he was saying that. He could NOT believe he was abandoning this little, barely hanging to life, monster to itself._

" _Please, don't come back, if you really want to help others, and help yourself, just endure your-! ! !"_

 _A thin, but sharp vine had suddenly bolted out of the ground, pointed at his skull, while the flower trembled once more, but this time, in ironic laughter._

" _Oh, my time in this timeline is almost up, I can feel it the way my Soul is now crumbling away, but still," it said with the grin of a serial killer (… *facepalm* joke not intended), "you have simply NO idea of the hell I have to go through."_

 _Its voice became a wavering trail of broken sounds._

" _As A dePartINg GIft," the flower said, while its voice lowered to an incredible demonic-like one, "_ _ **I WilL give yOU a GlIMpse Of iT, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.**_ _" With nearly lustful abandon, the vine seemed to shimmer, before finding itself plunged deep through the skeleton's body, having moved so fast Sans had no hope to escape. It began to repeatedly stab him everywhere there was a bone to fracture, injure or more simply break in two._

" _So that's how I will die?" Sans asked to himself. "This is it?" As his vision began to fade to black, a despaired scream could be heard, and he felt one last pang of agony rush through his entire body, even the parts of him that had been dislocated and thrown away._

 _The pain momentarily forcing him to open his eyes, the skeleton saw the flower now crying, seemingly over its fractured Soul, now cracking into smaller pieces, the white overgrowths less and less frequent, the red slowly taking over, becoming a bloody, shiny red mess of dust, nearly all gone in mere seconds._

 _However, as he noticed the flower looking in fact at HIM, he noticed that it was crying from regret, for HIM, not itself._

" _I'm sorry," the weed whispered, as the judge's Soul slowly turned to dust around the vine, "but now you will understand," it finished, one last, lone tear making its way on Sans cheek as the flower fell, leaning dead on the now equally, but still disaggregating, monster._

 _As his mind closed forever, he felt an unnatural heat coming off the plant's already dead stem._

 _And it was all he remembered before gasping for air, abruptly waking up in his bed._

Looking back to the Soul in front of him, Sans chased away the unpleasant memory. He knew the weed was seeing Papyrus in secret, using its knowledge of the timelines to help him out. Nonetheless, the older skeleton never managed to trust it, even despite the flower seemingly wanting to repent for its past sins. Since that other one seriously screwed up timeline…

"Nah, I'll think 'bout it later," he thought as he focused completely back on the Soul of the human.

Closing his eyes, he projected himself through the current that came out of his own Soul, following the thread of magic mentally, everything in his vision blurry, though he could make out details by focusing his stare, like crisscrossing his eyelights, but without the blurring, actually causing an opposite effect. Proximity always helped, so he came nearer, he soon felt the barrage around Frisk's Soul. She couldn't see, nor feel it herself, as she knew mainly how to fight, but he could see a second tentacle, red, pushing uselessly against the containment field, both of the human and monster's streams of magic attracted to each other, yet unable to reach out. As he lightly poked the barrier, he felt something shudder nearby, and was surprised when, as he tried to force through it, a strong mental force pushed him violently back in his body.

With a sigh, Sans opened his eyes, blinking a few times to chase away the lingering blindness that always occurred after doing a projection. As he considered trying again, he felt that all his magic was suddenly confined to his Soul. For a few moments, he feared this containment may burst it, but only seconds later, the force disappeared. As it retreated, the sentry had the idea of following it.

What he found was very unusual.

Letting his magic follow the trail left by the strange force, he suddenly came to a stop as the energy resorbed itself…

In none other than the princess' semi-material body.

Chara had been the one blocking him!

"But why?"

He then tried reaching out to the ghost's Soul.

"Nothing unexpected there," he thought as the now more or less familiar force blocked his magic off the Dreemurr's Soul.

However…

There might've been a little problem.

As he studied the flow of it, he discovered, much to his amazement, that while being the same kind of energy, it now found it's origin being Frisk's Soul.

Looks like he was right, after all.

"Curious, I read of it, but it's the first time I'm confronted to interconnected Souls, even less Souls of two **humans** with **powers**."

Thinking of it, he knew that this would be hard to explain.

As he gave the girls the go to retract their Souls, he looked to the ground, as if searching some answer in the flat, compacted snow, even if there was none to be found, since he knew it.

The current…

He had felt the current of magic transiting from the human to the ghost…

This announced for trouble. Big ones at that.

\- I…, he began.

With an audible *plop*, Flowey nearly sprung out of the soil.

\- Hey, what's taking you so long, he asked, not noticing the skeleton in his back.

Sans' expression darkened as the flashback from before vividly flashed in his mind, but he was quick to hide it.

Maybe the weed really wanted to repent for the sins committed in the past…

\- Sorry, Chara responded, but we had an uninvited guest.

Her eyes sent daggers in the direction of the sentry's throat.

As the flower finally realized who was behind it, it froze right there, unable to do much more than stare.

Finally, after an utterly, completely awkward moment of nothing :

\- … Hi, both murmured.

Chara raised an eyebrow.

"Not the reaction I expected, but oh well, maybe I really am just too paranoid around this one," she thought, "After all, I acted in a very aggressive way earlier… maybe I should apologize?"

The moment this specific thought crossed her mind, she knew that never in forever she would do that before the monster did for treating her as a child. Yes, it was a slightly selfish, mostly out of vanity reaction, but she couldn't help it. She may be human, but she was first of all, and still was to this day, a Dreemurr, no way she could apologize before Sans did.

Then, after it was all settled, maybe she could learn to like him… but definitively not before.

The princess sighed, before looking up as Frisk and Sans advanced, while her brother stood there, looking at her questioningly.

\- Hey, are you okay sis, there was clearly concern in his voice.

She shook herself then smiled at him, no need to worry the prince with these useless, unimportant thoughts.

\- Nothing, Azz, nothing, she murmured, still smiling.

\- Alright then, he cheered up.

As the ghost was about to go forward, the flower suddenly retreated underground.

\- What?

A few seconds later, she felt something fall on her back.

\- SURPRISE! ! !

\- HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII, she squealed in a brief moment of panic.

Moment which lasted until she noticed the vines and roots securing her brother around her neck and shoulders.

Moment followed by more hysteric screaming

\- GOSH DARN IT WARN ME NEXT TIME, I NEARLY HAD A HEART ATTACK BECAUSE OF THAT!

Swung right and left as his sister moved abruptly, Asriel tried to apologize.

\- So-orry sis, p-please stop sha-a-aking like t-that!

Chara settled down immediately, as she suddenly took on a profound red tomato color.

\- S-sorry, it was not nice of me to scream at you, but really, warn me next time, would you?

\- Phew, whatever you want, just don't shake me around like that again, pleaded the small monster.

She smiled once more. Making sure the flower was correctly holding himself to her, she finally went in.

[Meanwhile in the cabin.]

The moment Sans had closed the door behind them, Frisk noticed Clovis sitting on the woman's bed, pillows and bedsheets all properly arranged. After depositing Amanda on the couch, she reverted to her human self, only to, as she turned around, find her father smiling at her, standing next to Sans.

\- Frisk…

It was all he could say before they threw themselves in each other's arms, Frisk lowering her head in an apologetic manner, Clovis closing his eyes as they slowly began to get wet behind his glasses.

\- I'm sorry, Frisk said weakly, I shouldn't had ran away like that, I hadn't thought of how worried you would be.

\- I'm sorry, she repeated, even weaker as the man's jacket muffled her voice.

Clovis' only reaction was a gentle brush of her hairs as he kissed her on the head, like he often did when she was a kid, these nights where he would wake up to her cries of terror, indicating she had a nightmare of some sort, Amelia so tired by her work that she slept like a rock.

\- Shhh, now now, don't be sorry, he reassured her, I should be the one to say sorry.

He took Frisk by the shoulders and stared in her eyes.

\- I was going to give up on finding her, but you didn't, and I'm honestly proud that you're as stubborn as your mother was, his face expressed joy and pride, she'd be proud of you, too.

Nothing more was said, father and daughter enjoying this moment of peace together, even Sans was staying silent.

It was about that moment that the royal siblings nearly barged in.

\- Okay, Chara exclaimed, what do we… she suddenly realized everyone was staring at her, and she blushed once more. I just ruined something, didn't I, she whispered.

"Yes, kinda, I think so sis" were the answers that everyone blurted out in some weird show of perfect synchronicity.

\- Oh…

She looked away.

\- Sorry.

\- nah, 's nothing k-girl, the skeleton escaped the "kid" by saying "girl" instead, not an apology, but at least more respect than earlier.

\- Yeah, it was just some kind of emotional sappy stuff, declared the human girl, nothing to worry about.

\- Hey, where did you two go, asked the man.

Both brother and sister shot the other a glance.

\- Long story, they both said.

Clovis' excited expression quickly turned to a deceived one.

\- Uh… okay I guess…

Everyone chuckled at how deceived he looked, as if he awaited some epic story, just to get that "long story" answer.

\- So, Chara asked after a moment, how is miss Frozen ice cube doing?

\- Oh c'mon sis, that was mean, burst the prince as he lightly whacked her forehead with a thin vine.

\- Ha! Hey, I felt that! It tingles now and it feels weird, she complained while trying to scratch the spot concerned by that remark. Urgh, yeah it wasn't nice, but seriously, beside what Frisk told me I don't even know her.

\- Well, did the man began, she can act in cold a manner, but she was kind enough to let us stay the night here.

\- But for some reason she went away while we slept, finished Frisk, and gladly we found and got her back here.

\- wow, talk about a rough morning, and i thought my brother was getting up early, commented the short skeleton with a raised invisible brow.

\- Sure, rough is the word, agreed the young wizard, suddenly feeling tired.

She yawned, to everyone's surprise, except her father's who looked suspiciously at her.

\- Hmmm, Frisk, he asked, did you changed two or more times between now and this morning?

\- Uh-uh, she mumbled while rubbing her eyes, had to transport Amanda on my back, so I switched from wolf to bear, she explained.

Facepalm from the older human.

\- Uuuuugh, you know that while a wolf's weight may be similar, your body had to use a lot of magic and energy to match that of a bear, not even talking of the reversal process, he muttered.

He looked at the others.

\- She's still young, until a few years after she reaches maturity, she will still easily be tired from transforming within a span of a few hours, he said.

\- I think I'll take the carpet, Frisk weakly joked, getting a disapproving stare from Clovis and Chara, Flowey legitimately having not noticed there was one until now.

\- can't help but agree with her, the carpet looks more comfy then the bed, said the sentry.

\- I think a bed is EXACTLY what she needs right now, said Chara as she fought against the reflex to grit her teeth, we'll consider the carpet later if you don't mind.

With Clovis helping Frisk to not fall under the sudden kick in the guts that was the drop of energy she experienced, the ghost pulled the sheets and Flowey helped the human lay down, looking worriedly at their friend.

\- Hmmm, she nearly hummed in comfort, thanks guys, she barely murmured before falling straight into sleep as her dad pulled the sheets back up.

As human, ghost, flower and skeleton went closer to the fire, Clovis sighed heavily.

\- God, it's an exploit she even managed to fight against this kind of fatigue for so many hours.

\- Why is that, asked the princess.

\- You see, shapeshifting consumes a lot of energy and magic. While we do need a perfect knowledge of whatever animal we turn into, the relation between mass and energy makes it so whatever mass is lost turns to energy, while it also works the other way, and believe me, it's much more tiring than the first way around.

Flowey's expression suddenly lit up as he understood.

\- So you mean that by going from wolf to bear, she had to use more energy that converted into the extra mass that was needed, but when she turned back to human, a part of that energy was already lost, right?

As the man agreed, Chara's surprise at this kind of knowledge turned to worry as she recalled that from what the sentry said, the monster used to go from times to times to the royal scientist's laboratory in Hotland, he might've learned this conversion thing there.

"Azz," she thought regretfully, "what are you hiding from me?"

In retreat, Sans was looking at the flower, never had he seen it so happy.

"Well, except that one recent timeline where it cooked with Undyne and Paps, though we had for months to cleaning the kitchen…"

Actually, it was the only time he had seen the weed laughing wholeheartedly with others.

The image of the broken Soul passed through his mind.

"C'mon, you bag of bone, there's nothing good with remembering this thing."

The judge decided that the carpet suddenly had more interesting features then the flower.

"Why am I to recall all the timelines? Was it… no, I already know the answer," he thought grimly.

During this time, maybe he should get to do something to eat while the three others where talking…

"Wait, how long as it been since I cooked?"

He then remembered something.

" _Eh eh, you're doing well, Sans."_

 _He heard his own voice, but childish, respond._

" _Thanks ma'am!"_

 _The voice, gentle, familiar, firm but also encouraging barely chided him._

" _Oh dear, how many times do I have to say it, you can call me by name, it's not hard."_

 _He immediately replied._

" _Can't we just go back to cooking? I want to learn how you do your pie!"_

 _As the voice asked which one, the sounds begin to feel distant, as if they were drifting away._

Suddenly, his daydream stopped as fingers snapped in front of him.

Brought back to reality, he tilted backward from the proximity of said fingers, they were so close to the point of literally poking his eyelights.

"Okay," he thought, "time to count the freaky things that happened today."

He began with the strange request from the door lady, then…

He gave up.

Too lazy.

"Still hungry though."

\- Hey, snapped the weed, would you be so kind as to light up that stove so we can get on and eat?

It's face shifted to one of those surreal expression monsters had the secret of, nearly crying.

Seems like it watched too much anime…

\- weird ya're talking about that, was gonna cook something, he told it with his usual shit eating grin.

"I swear to god this weed is lucky to have friends," did he thought, his smile twitching so fast no one noticed it.

He turned to the stove, grabbed some cans of whatever was in them with magic, took a cauldron out of nowhere, seemingly materialized from under his jacket, and filled it with water. After verifying the content of each cans he had picked up, he poured their content and, to Clovis' surprise, a great amount of noodles plunged in the still cold, but now heating water.

Nothing was said as the water slowly began to boil.

From the next can that Sans opened, some yellow powder with green things in it slid out and fell in the mix, giving off a clearly strong and salty odor.

\- looks like we'll be having chicken noodle soup for dinner, flatly remarked the skeleton.

As he cooked, it fell as if he was given instructions.

" _Here, turn the handle, but not too much."_

He took off some vegetables from his inventory, and searched for a knife.

\- Here, said the weed as a vine held a knife of plastic, which still looked way sharper than any toy should've.

\- uh, thanks, weed.

\- Trashbag, was his answer.

\- Oh, c'mon you two, don't start or I'll slap both of you, stepped in the princess.

The flower went silent, and Sans went on with his cooking.

" _Now you want to cut rounded vegetables like onions in cubes, like this."_

Slowly, methodically, the monster cut a tomato, an onion and another one Clovis had never seen before in perfect cubes, slowly picking up the pace, getting more assured with every slice made.

" _Then, with the ones like carrots, you start by cutting off the top, then carefully so you don't cut yourself, start from an extremity and slice them, not too big or small."_

In less then thirty seconds, three carrots had been sliced equally, and everything went in the soup, now steaming greatly.

Popping a lid from under his jacket once again, he put it on the cauldron's top, a perfect fit.

The sentry lowered the heat a bit, burnt the leftovers of the vegetables in the fireplace, before addressing the others.

\- i think it'll be good in a few.

As he looked back to the group, he was surprised to see all of them staring at him in shock.

\- That was the fastest cooking I ever saw, whispered the ghost, nearly phasing under the floor as she fell on her butt.

\- Someone surely taught you how to cook, right, asked the small monster beside her.

\- i dunno bud, it kinda came naturally, i already knew how to cook, just too lazy to do so, answered the skeleton truthfully.

This time the facepalm was shared.

\- You lazybones.

The tone of the weed's voice expressed the trio's feelings perfectly.

\- meh, thanks, i'm known for having a **thick** skull, he winked to the ghost and flower.

If Chara's eye simply twitched in annoyance, the plant's opinion was clear.

\- OH MY GOD I ASSURE YOU I WILL MAKE YOU PASS THE DESIRE TO MAKE PUNS AT ANY OPPORTUNITY! ! !

Suddenly, a grunt of pain came from behind the monster.

\- Ha… what… happened? I feel so cold, but… almost burning.

Clovis was the first to react.

He nearly ran to the couch, where the woman had finally woken up.

"Thanks goodness her magic saved her from a thermal shock," thought the man in a moment of relief.

\- You were laying frozen in the forest, and Frisk brought you back here, at the cabin.

His response was a weak sigh mixed to some sort of agreeing.

\- Ugh… everything is… blurry, muttered the sorceress.

Despite her slow movements, she managed to get up before the man could do anything.

The following moment, she was lying on the floor, trembling.

\- You shouldn't have tried to stand alone, softly exclaimed the mage before he lent her a hand, here, lemme help you.

Still shivering, the woman took his hand, and with much efforts from her, managed to walk back to the couch, where she sat down.

\- Atchoo, she sneezed without any warning.

\- Looks like you've got a bad cold, said Flowey.

Trying to rub off the blur from her eyes, the woman suddenly gasped when she realized two things.

First of all, a talking flower was in her house.

Second thing : WHY WOULD A FLOWER BE OUT IN SUCH LOW TEMPERATURE! ? !

\- Woah… okay… Has the cold got… got me crazy or… is there really a… a t-talking flower in m-my house, she asked as her teeth gradually began to chatter.

\- Don't forget us, too, dryly remarked Chara.

Amanda's eye, now all but blurry, widened.

There was a frigin ghost in the house!

Then she looked to the ghost's side and nearly fainted.

And now a skeleton too?!

What was going on here?!

\- I… I d-don't really f-feel t-too good all of a sudd-den, she said through her chattering.

\- mind if we do presentations later, asked the skeleton to the man.

To her relief, Clovis agreed.

\- I think it would be better for the three of you to wait outside.

The trio complied astoundingly fast. The short skeleton teleported outside, the flower ducked underground and the ghost just went invisible while a little noise of suction indicated she had traversed the wall.

\- B-be hon-nest, she asked, am I just g-g-going craz-zy and halluc-cinat-ting all this?

The mage laughed.

\- Luckily no, welcome back to the world of the living.

She managed a weak laugh herself, before another sneeze cut her right off.

\- Yerk.

The man simply snickered.

\- Don't worry, Frisk's worse when her allergies kicks in.

Amanda glanced questioningly at him, he never mentioned his daughter having any allergy of some sort.

Catching the silent question, Clovis smiled once more.

\- Yeah, Frisk's allergic to many kinds of flowers, especially buttercups.

She laughed openly at that, and as she wanted to say something, another sneeze made her unable to for some more time.

\- *sniff* S-sorry… Anyw-way, I wish h-her good lu-uck if y-you… ACTHOO! If y-you reach the ca-castle. App-parently t-the ki-king has the… the throne r-room com… completely... Complet-ATCHOO, urgh, completely f-filled with b-buttercup-ps, eh…

The man grimaced at the thought, and also because of the mess the woman made from sneezing.

\- We… we'll just have to find some way around that room then. I'm sure the king would not like it if we destroyed his flowers.

\- The t-throne's room is t-the on-only way to the… to the ba-barrier… *sniff*

His face fell.

\- Shit, was the only word to make it through.

Despite her chattering and sneezing, Amanda could only laugh madly at his reaction.

Not amused one bit, Clovis waited for her to calm down.

Finally, as her laughter died down, he managed to make himself heard again.

\- Huuu, he began, looking awkwardly around, so about the others…

\- I'm not mad, she rapidly told him before she could chatter or sneeze anymore, just maybe a bit annoyed by the fact three perfect strangers were invited in my house while my mind was in the Wonderlands taking tea with the Mad hatter…

She only received a heavy "wtf" look.

\- I-I like the book, that's all, she murmured while blushing, her hairs suddenly hiding her face as the frozen elastic gave up and snapped.

\- …

\- … T-that, she managed to say, wasn't… p-planned.

An angel passed, during which they did not know if they would be better laughing like crazy or just do as if this never happened.

In the end, they opted for an amused concert of "pfff"s and other sounds from the same register.

\- Sorry, just, he said while fumbling with his fingers, just let me do it, I doubt your hands will be good for anything for the next hour or so.

The mage replaced the mess of silky black hairs only to see the woman smiling sheepishly away.

That was quite the change from the day before.

However, maybe it would be best to simply let it go and not ask her right away.

Suddenly she sniffed.

\- S-soup?

\- Chicken noodles and vegetables, specialty of the chef, he replied with a wide grin.

\- And w-who's the ge… the geni-ATCHOO! Sorry, the genius be-behind this?

\- The genius is staring at us from your door with a big goofy smile as we speak, replied the man quite dryly.

The other human turned around right at the moment Sans' funny face was replaced by a shocked one as Chara and Asriel both began to pursue him around after whacking him once both with a vine.

\- A bunch of kids, she sighed desperately.

\- Well, he intervened, the two chasing him just really not like puns, so I think the why of this chase is obvious.

She stayed silent, before she decided to reply.

\- Yyyyyyyeeeeaaaaahhhh, I g-guess s-so, she said, more to herself than the man at her side.

She then asked where was Frisk, to which Clovis told his part of the rough morning they had.

After he finished, she was looking at the sleeping girl with a new emotion that sparked up something she had lost long before.

Respect, gratitude, and genuine love, the kind two sisters would share, even if one sided at the moment.

She turned back to the man.

\- She's a brave kid, you're a very lucky dad, Clovis.

He looked yet again with pride making his eyes shine and his smile seems brighter at his daughter.

\- Yes, she really is unique, he said.

The tone he used reminded her of her own father, but then she thought, she had lost everything on the surface, but maybe down there, things could be alright for her.

Looking with newfound hopes at the two mages with her, she thought that maybe a new start was still possible down there.

Maybe with time, her wounds would heal at last?

Maybe, together, they could all recover from their internal injuries.

Together… she liked the sound of it.

Yes, together…

They would fix everything together.

* * *

FI-NISHED, F-I-N-I-S-H-E-D, My god, I'm nearly crying of relief, and I thought this monster would burst the 15k threshold, I'm so glad it's over, like, shit.

Okay, so, as I said in the blooper thing, I began to do it in my other stories, and I'd like to start doing it here too, I'll answer reviews from now on, ask me anything, just talk of the story, rant on your life, all you want, just don't ask me to spoil the plot, plz.

Alright, I'll be waiting.

From the most tired bowl of pasta ever, until next time everyone.

*As the author exit the room, you see in their notes one that catch your attention.*

"I wonder… will this work? Will they manage to attain the goal I fixed them? I created them with everything they needed in order to succeed, the rest, the **story** , its outcome, is up to them to decide."

*What a strange note, but underneath, an even stranger one is lying down.*

"One key found its place, will it unlock the way to the five others' destination? At least I hope so."

*Okay, now you just feel confused, maybe it wasn't a good idea to read these notes.*

* * *

Hey, I wanted to adress someone here, my ffn friend Phouka Dragon11. I know you're gonna read this the moment you can, I mean, this was like chapter freakin fifteen with Amanda's past and all, we talked about this one for so long, so I wanted to say, thank you, for everything, really. You were the first to review this story when I was still making cringey errors in my writing. You were the one I talked about the plot part too and you helped me to get out of my writing blocks most of the time. I know we both were not doing great when we first met, especially you, but we got through and supported each other for a year now. Well, you had the extra task of supporting my quirks too lol ^^'

I am so glad that we met, and I hope that the year to come will be a good one. We had our part of ups and downs lately and not so lately, but we had each other.

I seriously don't care of who reads this besides you and may think that I'm doing drama or whatever, but thank you Phouka, for being there for me when I needed to. You are a wonderful friend and I hope our friendship will last for years. To find someone I can go along with and enjoy talking to this much is a thing I am not willing to give up anytime soon.

I know that by now this looks a bit sappy and stuff, but thank you...

I honestly don't know where I'd be without you, so thanks, from the very bottom of my heart.

I'll talk with you later bud. See ya! *nopes out of the universe*


End file.
